The New England Quarterly 1932-04: Vol 5 Iss 2

QVARTERLY

An Historical Review of
New England Life and Letters

APRIL
1932

UNPUBLISHED PoreMs or Emity Dickinson
Margaret Higginson Barney — Frederic I. Carpenter

Rocer SHERMAN: CoRDWAINER StatTesMAN Julian P. Boyd
HawTuHorne AND Po irtics Randall Stewart
Rosert Ranrout, Jr. Merle E. Curti
Soncs anp VERsEs ABOUT WasSHINGTON Mary W. Smyth
RicHarp Partripce: Coconiat Acent Marguerite Appleton

MEMORANDA AND DocyMENTS
A New England Boy in the Civil War Caroline B. Sherman
James Otis and Jonathan Swift Floy P. Gates
A Book Note by Melville John H. Birss
Herman Melville’s Ty pee Nelson F. Adkins

Book Reviews (see next page )

Rosert Frost “Lacks Power” Robert Hillyer
Nores on NIGHTINGALES Stewart Mitchell
A Bisriocrapny oF New ENGLAanp, 1931 Allyn B. Forbes

$4.00 4 year $1.00 a copy

THE SOUTHWORTH PRESS

PORTLAND
MAINE

EDITORS
SAMUEL Extor Morison
ArtTuur M. ScHLESINGER Sranitey T. WiLiiaMs
Kennetu B. Murpock Freperic I. CARPENTER
Srewart MrrcHecyi
Managing Editor

BOOK REVIEWS

PROVINCIAL AND Court Recorps oF MAINE, 11, edited by C. T. Libby;

History or York, Mainz, 1, by C. E. Banks J. F. Baldwin
Mr. Justice Hoimes, edited by Felix Frankfurter T. V. Smith
BLAINE OF Maine, by C. E. Russell R. V. Harlow
LETTERS AND Papers OF Mayor-GENERAL SULLIVAN, II,

edited by Otis G. Hammond L. S. Mayo
Leonarp Bacon, by T. D. Bacon Daniel Evans
Lanp Ho! 1620, by W. S. Nickerson S. E. Morison
PHILENIA, by Emily Pendleton and Milton Ellis Karl Schriftgiesser
My Unirep Srates, by Frederic J. Stimson G. R. Nutter
AMERICAN INTERPRETATION OF NATURAL Law,

by B. F. Wright D. W. Brogan
EMERSON Topay, by Bliss Perry F. 1. Carpenter
PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL

SOCIETY, LXIII H. S. Commager
Tue Lapy or Godey’s, by Ruth E. Finley Lawrence Martin
Ciassic AMERICANS, by H. S. Canby Stewart Mitchell
LABORING AND DEPENDENT CLASSES IN COLONIAL

AMERICA, 1607-1783, by Marcus W. Jernegan Perry Miller
Tue GREEN MOUNTAIN SERIES OF VERMONT Books,

edited by Arthur W. Peach Stewart Mitchell
STANFORD WHITE, by C. E. Baldwin A. Hyatt Mayor
JONATHAN Epwarps, by A. C. McGiffert F. 1. Carpenter
SHORT NorIcEs

Tue New Encianp Quarterty is published quarterly at Portland, Maine.
Publication Office, 105 Middle Street, Portland, Maine. Subscription Office,
Post Office Box 66, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Manuscripts may be ad-
dressed to S. E. Morison, 417 Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, Stanley T. Williams, 595 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, Connecti-
cut, or Stewart Mitchell, Hotel Somerset, Boston, Massachusetts.

All books for review should be sent to Kenneth B. Murdock, The Master’s
Lodgings, Leverett House, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

All Rights Reserved

Entered as second class matter January 5, 1929, at the post office at Portland,
Maine, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Copyright 1932 by The Southworth Press

THE
NEW ENGLAND
QVARTERLY

egistered in the United States P

An Historical Review of
New England Life and Letters

.

Volume V. Number 2
April, 1932

CONTENTS

UNPUBLISHED Poems oF Emity Dickinson

Margaret Higginson Barney
Frederic 1. Carpenter

Rocer SHERMAN: CoRDWAINER STATESMAN
Julian P. Boyd
HAWTHORNE AND Po.rrics Randall Stewart
Rosert RanTout, JR. Merle E. Curti

Soncs AND VERsEs ABOUT WASHINGTON Mary W. Smyth
RICHARD ParTRIDGE: COLONIAL AGENT
Marguerite Appleton
MEMORANDA AND DocuMENTs
A New England Boy in the Civil War Caroline B. Sherman

James Otis and Jonathan Swift Floy P. Gates

A Book Note by Melville John H. Birss

Herman Melville’s Typee Nelson F. Adkins
Book Reviews

PROVINCIAL AND Court Recorps or Maine, 11, edited by C. T.
Libby; History or York, Maine, 1, by C. E. BANKs

J. F. Baldwin

Mr. Justice Hotes, edited by Felix Frankfurter T.V. Smith
BLAINE OF Maine, by C. E. Russell R. V. Harlow
LETTERS AND Papers oF Mayor-GENERAL SULLIVAN, II,

edited by Otis G. Hammond L. 8. Mayo
LEonaRD Bacon, by T. D. Bacon Daniel Evans
Lanp Ho! 1620, by W. S. Nickerson S. E. Morison
PHILENIA, by Emily Pendleton and Milton Ellis Karl Schriftgiesser
My UNITED Srates, by Frederic J. Stimson G. R. Nutter
AMERICAN INTERPRETATION OF NaTuURAL Law,

by B. F. Wright D. W. Brogan
EMERSON Topay, by Bliss Perry F.1. Carpenter
PROCEEDINGS OF THE MAssACHUSETTS HISTORICAL

SOCIETY, LXIII H. S. Commager
Tue Lapy or Godey’s, by Ruth E. Finley Lawrence Martin
CLassic AMERICANS, by H. S. Canby Stewart Mitchell

LABORING AND DEPENDENT CLASSES IN COLONIAL
AMERICA, 1607-1783, by Marcus W. Jernegan Perry Miller
THe Green Mountain Series oF VERMONT Books,

edited by Arthur W. Peach Stewart Mitchell
STanrorD WuirE, by C. E. Baldwin 4A. Hyatt Mayor
JonaTHAN Epwarps, by A. C. McGiffert F.1. Carpenter
SHort Norices
Rosert Frost “Lacks Power” Robert Hillyer
Nores ON NIGHTINGALES Stewart Mitchell
A BisBLiocRaPHy oF New ENGLAND, 1931 Allyn B. Forbes

EpiroriaL Norices
Nores ON CONTRIBUTORS

217

221
237
264
281

293

310
344
346
348

352
358
361

363
364
367
368
371

375
377

379
382

385
388

390
393
395

402
404
408
425

THE
NEW ENGLAND
QVARTERLY

APRIL, 1932

UNPUBLISHED POEMS OF
EMILY DICKINSON

MARGARET HIGGINSON BARNEY
FREDERIC IVES CARPENTER

HE experimental or imperfect work of an author

frequently proves as interesting and suggestive as
the perfect work, which has been universally read and
acclaimed. The carelessness of metre, the incompletion
of rhyme, the abruptness, the anacolouthon — even the
absence of apparent sense — often reveals the author
more completely than the perfect metre or phrase. In
the past, Emily Dickinson’s published poems have some-
times been praised for their studied carelessness. The
half-rhymes, the irregularities have seemed too excellent
to be the result of spontaneous self-expression. But a
reading of some of her less perfect poems, hitherto un-
published, would seem to prove the opposite.

217

218 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

The following six poems of Emily Dickinson were
among those sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson for
his criticism and comment between the years 1860 and
1875.’ They are here reproduced from the manuscript
volume given by Colonel Higginson as a part of the
Galatea Collection, to the Boston Public Library, with
the kind permission of the late Mr. Charles F. Belden,
Librarian.

The cause of their not having been published before
is not far to seek. The poems are unsuccessful in so far
as formal perfection is concerned. But the very quality
of their imperfection reveals something of the method
of Emily Dickinson, the poet. They fail, not through
lack of inspiration, but through lack of art. They all re-
veal glimpses of the precious metal underneath. What
is needed is a new assaying, a new refining.

The poems are here presented in the order in which
they occur in the Galatea Collection. The dates of com-
position have been approximately determined from the
hand-writing of the manuscript. Only the last poem may
be given a definite date, for it is mentioned in a letter
written by Emily Dickinson to Colonel Higginson in
1875. She wrote: “I send you a Gale, and an Epitaph,
and a Word to a Friend, and a Bluebird’ for Mrs.
Higginson. Excuse them if they are untrue.”

1 A complete list of the poems sent Colonel Higginson will be found in

Letters of Emily Dickinson, recently published by Mrs. Mabel Loomis
Todd.

2 Not to be confused with the Bluebird published in Poems, Second
Series.

POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON 219

1860-1870
To undertake is to achieve
Be undertaking blent
With fortitude of obstacle
And toward encouragement.

That fine suspicion, natures must
Permitted to revere
Departed standards and the few

Criterion sources here.

1870-1875
(Sent with leaves)
Dominion lasts until obtained,
Possession just as long.
But these — endowing as they flit
Eternally belong.

How everlasting are the lips
Known only to the dew!

These are the brides of permanence
Supplanting me and you.

1870-1875
The days that we can spare
Are those a function die,
Or friend or nature — stranded there
In our economy.

Our estimates a scheme,

Our ultimates a sham,

We let go all of time without
Arithmetic of him.

220 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

1870-1875
The mind lives on the heart
Like any parasite.
If that is full of meat
The mind is fat.

But if the heart omit,
Emaciate the wit.
The aliment of it

So absolute.

1870-1875
“Faithful to the end” amended
From the Heavenly clause,
Constancy with a proviso
Constancy abhors.

“Crowns of life” are servile prizes
To the stately heart.
Given for the Giving, solely,

No emolument.

1875

After all birds have been investigated and laid aside,
Nature imparts the little blue-bird, assured

Her conscientious voice will soar unmoved

Above ostensible vicissitude.

First at the March, competing with the wind,
Her panting note exalts us, like a friend,

Last to adhere when summer cleaves away,
Elegy of integrity.

ROGER SHERMAN:
PORTRAIT OF A CORDWAINER STATESMAN

JULIAN P. BOYD
I

66 HAT,” said Thomas Jefferson to a friend, “is Mr.

Sherman of Connecticut —a man who never said a
foolish thing in his life.” If all available records per-
mit us to hazard a judgment, Jefferson was right. And
it isno wonder. The pattern for Sherman’s life was fixed
by the iron rules of conservative orthodoxy in Church
and State as surely as any Calvinistic predestinarianism
could have fixed it. No Puritan ever adhered more
closely to the rules than did Sherman, and there was
nothing in them to permit a man to say foolish things.
Moreover, fortune had saddled upon him the necessity
for gaining a livelihood by hard manual labor, and his
efforts to achieve it had taught him a shrewd economy of
words as well as money. Words were tools of great im-
portance, to be chosen deliberately, used sparingly, and
sent forth upon their mission soberly.

When, in 1761, Roger Sherman moved to New
Haven, he found himself in what served as a metropolis
for the colony, insofar as its fifteen hundred or so shop-
keepers, artisans, and farmers could enable it to do so.
Sitting quietly by the sea, the little port was outside the
main currents of commerce and politics of the British
Empire. She trafficked a little with Boston, New York,
and the West Indies, but hardly any with England. Her

22!1

222 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

inhabitants, like those of all other towns in Connecticut,
were contented, self-reliant, narrow, and independent in
their isolation. The legislature, which met here every
other session in the stately brick building on the com-
mons, enacted laws whose main object was the preserva-
tion of the Puritan status quo. The judges who inter-
preted these laws did so with the same end in view, and,
if doubt arose, confined themselves to “some plain and
clear rule of the Word of God” rather than trust them-
selves to the untried expedient of the English Common
Law. The teachers in the rural academy called Yale Col-
lege, who each year took a few farmer boys and made
them over into Congregational ministers or school-
masters, traveled the same road of orthodoxy.

The town common was the center of village life.
On, or near it, were the court-house, the grammar-
school, and the jail, with its stocks, whipping-post, and
gibbet. Horses, cows, geese, and occasional pigs wan-
dered about the green and added their barn-yard cacoph-
ony to the quiet bustle of the town. Cumbersome cart-
wheels cut deep ruts into the turf in the early spring.
Youngsters, clad in leather breeches and spatter-dashes,
played about the pond. Down at the harbor was the
hum of an infant commerce. On the wharves were
barrels of molasses and rum, stacked in rows of military
precision, and close by one could detect the pungent
smell of hickory smoke blending with the pleasant aroma
of rum in the process of distillation.

All of this was carried on under the zgis of a Puritan
society, dominated in all departments by Congregation-
alism, chiefly of the sort that Jonathan Edwards was
preaching up in Northampton. Government by the peo-

ROGER SHERMAN 223

ple was unheard of. Government for the people, by a
select group of men, reélected year in and year out by
reason of their orthodoxy, family, wealth, talents, edu-
cation, and political experience, was the rule. It was
essentialiy an aristocracy of worth, where progress or
even change were ideas as abhorrent as democracy or
heresy. The colony was a magnification of the towns that
it consisted of, and in the towns as in the colony the rulers
were all of the same pattern, with here and there an ill-
fitting exception. They were eminently respectable, un-
impeachable in character, and bound by the ties of ortho-
doxy to serve God and man well by performing the
duties of their offices with fidelity.

Roger Sherman was typical of the best that such a
society could produce. As a private individual, he ex-
emplified the Puritan virtues of self-reliance, industry,
economy, strict morality, and devoutness. As a public
official, he performed the duties of his office so as to safe-
guard the integrity of the established order as nearly as
possible and with as much economy as possible. His own
convictions, altered here and there perhaps by convinc-
ing argument but never by intimidation, guided him in
the achievement of that end. There was little need for
demagoguery, still less for graft and bribery, patronage
and pusillanimity. Though the ominous rumble could
be heard faintly, the noise of democracy was yet a long
way off.

But those who picture this Puritanism as altogether
somber and colorless, where souls were attended to and
bodies neglected, are careful to select their materials.
Connecticut produced a Jared Ingersoll as well as a
Roger Sherman. They were neighbors in New Haven,

224 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

but they had little in common. Ingersoll was Yale-bred
and a Loyalist; Sherman was self-taught and a Patriot.
Ingersoll was a lawyer, a man of wealth and position,
and had represented the colony at the court of George
III. He owned slaves and fine horses and was, as his
biographer says, “as closely akin in spirit to the Virginia
cavalier as was likely to be found in New England.”
But Roger Sherman never saw the fashionable lords in
the Cockpit. The nearest he ever got to the atmosphere
of the court of George III was in 1774 when, in the Con-
tinental Congress, he met the aristocrats of the Virginia
and South Carolina tidewater. He disapproved of both
slavery and intoxicating liquors, and cared nothing for
taste and fashion.

Nothing reveals his Puritanism so strikingly as an ap-
praisal in terms of the contrast that Ingersoll offers.
Fortunately, portraits of each have been preserved and
we are enabled to make the astonishing contrast of the
best that colonial Connecticut had to offer in smooth
urbanity with the best that it had to offer in Puritan pro-
vinciality. The portrait of Ingersoll is an exquisite Cop-
ley, and is in the possession of a descendant in Boston;
that of Sherman is by Ralph Ear! and is in the Yale Gal-
lery of Fine Arts.

The Copley canvas shows Ingersoll seated in a richly
upholstered chair at the side of a mahogany table. He
is dressed in full court regalia; his knee-breeches are
garnet colored, and his wrists are sheathed in ruffles of
fine lace. He wears a dress sword. His white satin
waistcoat is elaborately embroidered, and a cambric
neckerchief with long lace ends falls inside his vest. His
body is well poised, and his left hand rests gracefully

ROGER SHERMAN 225

on his knee. The expression on his regular features is
one of dignity and gentility. The portrait might easily
be that of an eighteenth-century London gentleman.

The portrait of Sherman is a masterpiece of photo-
graphic authenticity —such a conclusion is inescapable
to one who has gone through the records of his life. It
fits in with everything we know about him. It is utterly
devoid of the indications of extravagance and wealth
that fill the Copley portrait. Sherman is seated in a
plain Windsor chair in the corner of an unadorned room.
His awkward posture is that of a self-conscious farmer.
His clothes are plain and ill-fitting. His muscular wrists
project awkwardly beyond his coat sleeves, and are quite
devoid of lace ruffles. His coat, waistcoat, and tight-
fitting knee-breeches are without ornament of any kind.
In his rugged face there is not the slightest suggestion
of sophistication or fine living. It is the face of a Con-
necticut yeoman endowed with a superior intelligence,
and is as square and honest as his blunt leather shoes.

Sherman’s hand also rests on his left knee, but with
what a difference! Ingersoll’s fingers are long, taper-
ing, and gracefully flexed. Sherman’s hand is large,
his fingers blunt and muscular. He grasps his leg
tightly. One feels that this is a stroke so accurate that
a photograph could not improve upon it. Sherman’s
hands had pegged shoes, measured rum, grasped plow
handles, and wielded a hammer to the mellow clanging
of a blacksmith’s anvil. But they became cumbersome
and embarrassing when empty or idle. Yeomen’s
hands have always been so.

Sherman’s contemporaries were almost invariably in-
spired to sit down and draw pen pictures of this Puritan

226 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

patriot in their letters and diaries. John Adams of Mas-
sachusetts, Silas Deane of Connecticut, Thomas Jeffer-
son and Patrick Henry of Virginia, William Pierce of
Georgia — all saw him from widely different vantage
points, yet their descriptions bear witness that Ralph
Earl drew an authentic likeness. None of them failed
to speak highly of his intelligence, his honesty, his de-
votion to public duty, his industry, and his piety. And
few failed to point out his amazing ungainliness. In the
First Continental Congress John Adams heard him
speak, and immediately wrote in his diary:

Sherman’s air is the reverse of grace; there cannot be a more
striking contrast to beautiful action than the motion of his
hands. . . . He has a clear head and sound judgment, but when
he moves a hand in anything like action, Hogarth’s genius could
not have invented a motion more opposite to grace.

Thirteen years later, in the Constitutional Convention,
William Pierce saw him for the first time and wrote:

Mr. Sherman exhibits the oddest shaped character I ever re-
member to have met with. He is awkward, unmeaning, and
unaccountably strange in his manner. In his train of thinking
there is something regular, deep, and comprehensive; yet the
oddity of his address, the vulgarisms that accompany his public
speaking, and that strange New England cant which runs
through his public as well as his private speaking make every-
thing that is connected with him grotesque and laughable. And
yet he deserves infinite praise — no man has a better heart or a
clearer head.

“Grotesque and laughable.” Three-quarters of a cen-
tury afterwards, another yeoman who had a like reputa-
tion for honesty, intelligence, and statecraft was fur-

ROGER SHERMAN 227

rowing his brow to save the Union that Sherman had
done so much to create. He, too, was called “grotesque
and laughable”—“the Gorilla from Illinois.” But there
the similitude ends. Lincoln was no Puritan and he had
a sense of humor.

II

Sherman’s background was of a homespun humble-
ness. His family was one of the oldest of the Puritan
lines, undistinguished by wealth or social position and
mainly devoted to agriculture, with an occasional clergy-
man, schoolmaster, or local magistrate cropping out.
Born into a family of limited means, he found it neces-
sary to learn the trades of cordwainer, shop-keeper, and
surveyor. He was an inveterate reader, admired Milton
and Vattel, and knew the Bible well enough to discuss
theological subjects with the leading divines of New
England. From his life-long devoutness it is obvious
that Congregationalism narrowly missed getting an able
theologian, but his liking for politics was too strong.
Like a true Puritan, the hatred of idleness flamed in him
to an unusual degree. He followed the trades of cord-
wainer and surveyor, bought and sold land, became a
merchant, composed and published almanacs, and busied
himself in all of the affairs of town and church. These
various endeavors enabled him to operate mercantile
establishments in New Milford, New Haven, and Wall-
ingford, and soon he was prepared to devote all of his
time to his chief interest.

He began to study law, was admitted to the bar, and
became a Justice of the Peace within a year. Law led into
politics, and from 1755 to his death in1793 he was never
out of public office. He served an apprenticeship of sev-

228 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

eral years in the legislature, and then in 1766 was elected
to the Governor’s council. This, under the Connecticut
system, practically meant that he could hold the office
quam diu se bene gesserit, and he did hold it for nine-
teen years. There were annual elections, to be sure, but
these were perfunctory affirmations of continued ap-
proval rather than contests for reélection; only two gov-
ernors of colonial Connecticut were ever really voted out
of office. The same year Sherman was elected a judge of
the superior court, and this office he held for twenty-
three years. During the while he served as member of
the Council of Safety, member of the Continental Con-
gress, Mayor of New Haven, member of the Constitu-
tional Convention, and afterwards as member of the
Federal Congress and Senate. He was the only person
to sign all four of the great documents upon which the
structure of the republic rests: the Articles of Association
of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles
of Confederation, and the Federal Constitution. For
a humble cordwainer, this was no casual achievement.
In all of these offices he acted consistently with the
Puritan training which was so deeply ingrained in him.
This long record of service, which compares favorably
with those of Washington and Franklin, was directed in
the main toward one principal object: the maintenance
of the established order as it was when the British
ministry began its close surveillance of the colonies in
1763. One of the sure evidences of Sherman’s claim to
statesmanship is his progression from a local politician in
1755, who regarded Connecticut’s isolation as a splendid
one for maintaining the status quo in Puritan govern-
ment, to a national figure in 1787 who found it necessary

ROGER SHERMAN 229

to compromise local autonomy with national consolida-
tion for the same purpose.

As a prosperous merchant who objected to an external
control over his trade, and as a Puritan who regarded
the existing order as one that would retain its excellence
only if kept intact, he naturally fell in with the Revolu-
tionary movement. The enforcement of the Navigation
Acts on the one hand, and the dubious prospect of an
Anglican bishop in Connecticut on the other, struck at
two of the main pillars in Sherman’s cosmos. He lacked
the training in philosophy and jurisprudence that char-
acterized the learned James Wilson and the radical
Thomas Jefferson, but, surprising to relate, this orthodox
and conservative Puritan stood with them in advance of
his countrymen on the fringes of treason by declaring
that Parliament had no right in any case to legislate for
the colonies. He was one of the first to refer to the
colonies as “distinct dominions” in the British Empire.
That was the sort of political theory that suited the
merchant class as well as the Puritan leaders in 1776.
But it was also a theory that would come home to them
after the war. When that time arrived, the “distinct
dominions” were, as one patriot put it, “intoxicated with
the idea of their own sovereignty,” and, under the
dominance of an aroused populism, not only showed a
distressing disregard for the welfare of the merchant
class, but began to disintegrate the bonds which held the
Puritan order together. Stay laws favoring debtors,
paper money as legal tender, and the organization of
Methodist churches in Connecticut were indubitable
forerunners of democracy. Yet Sherman was consistent.
In 1776 he joined the revolutionaries to protect material

230 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

interests and the established order from a blundering
external control seated in Whitehall. In 1787 he joined
the counter-revolutionaries to protect the same interests
from the equally blundering and more malicious control
of the local ragtag and bobtail.

If he was not grounded in the theory of government,
he was, nevertheless, a master in the art of practical
politics, and from the beginning he was a leader in the
Continental Congress. If his revolutionary doctrines
are surprising, no less so is his use of that adroit compro-
mising and diplomatic “management” which are so
essential to a mastery of statecraft. Puritans are not
often found in attitudes of compromise with principles
they hold in abhorrence, such, for instance, as slavery
and democracy. Yet Sherman, perhaps more than any
other, deserves the title of the Great Compromiser in the
formative period of the Republic. Especially is this true
of that convention in 1787 which produced the “bundle
of compromises” known as the Federal Constitution.
The chief one in the whole bundle, that concerning the
mode of representation in the national legislature, was
Sherman’s own handiwork.

On one matter, however, he revealed his Puritan
theory of government by fighting an unpopular and an
uncompromising battle. With a Yankee’s shrewd liking
for sound credit, Sherman devoted probably a majority
of his time in the Continental Congress to the task of
keeping the nation at least within hailing distance of
solvency. In season and out he protested against financ-
ing the Revolution with paper money. Taxes alone, he
insisted, could save America from an “enthralment of
debt.” It was a futile task, yet he stuck to it. Forty-

ROGER SHERMAN 231

two separate times within four years did the govern-
ment issue bales of fiat money. The States exulted in the
blissful thought that provisions could be bought and
armies paid by the mere expedient of enacting a law.
Their presses ran overtime printing money. “Not worth
a Continental” came to mean the ultimate in worthless-
ness.

The essence of Puritan government was that the rulers
should exercise their own judgment in the sight of God
when deciding public questions, regardless of any popu-
lar clamor to the contrary. Sherman stated the theory
succinctly and there can be no doubt that he followed it:

It is the duty of a good representative to inquire what meas-
ures are most likely to promote the general welfare, and, after -
he has discovered them, to give them his support. Should his in-
structions, therefore, coincide with his ideas on any measure,
they would be unnecessary; if they were contrary to the con-
viction of his own mind, he must be bound by every principle
of justice to disregard them.

Only a superficial knowledge of the spirit of the Revolu-
tion is needed to understand how much at variance with
popular desire was Sherman’s stand concerning paper
money and taxes. One of the grievances against Eng-
land was that paper money had been prohibited by Act
of Parliament. As for taxation, the word itself in the
minds of many Americans was practically synonymous
with tyranny. Yet Sherman wrote letter after letter to
governors and others, urging the states to draw upon the
country’s resources and not demoralize the nation’s
finances by issuing fiat money. Sherman’s theory of a
“good representative” is a point of view that belongs to
the past. But compared with the blandishments with

232 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

which modern politicians fawn upon the electorate in the
cadaverous light of Prohibition, the Puritan theory, if
not in accord with prevalent democratic dogma, never-
theless had much in it to recommend itself to the admira-
tion of those who esteem such virtues in public officers as
honesty, courage, and intellectual responsibility.

Eight years of arduous, nerve-wracking labor in the
Continental Congress made Sherman far older than his
sixty-three years indicated. In length of time, and per-
haps also in industry and usefulness, his legislative ex-
perience was greater than that of any other member.
In 1784 he retired to New Haven to his judicial duties
and his new office of mayor of the city. During the next
three years he observed such democratic exuberances as
Shays’s Rebellion with no less hostility than he had re-
garded the measures of Lord North’s ministry. In 1787
he was ready for the counter-revolt.

Ill

While recent researches have gone to prove that the
members of the Constitutional Convention were in sub-
stantial agreement on the great objects to be accom-
plished, such as giving the national government right of
taxation, control of commerce, and power to establish a
currency, the assembled statesmen were nevertheless di-
vided on the question of the best form of government to
achieve these objects. Nationalists like Wilson, Morris,
and Hamilton collided on this matter with confederates
like Patterson, Lansing, and Martin. In between was a
small group acting as a balance wheel.

Two in this group deserve conspicuous places in a re-
cital of the achievements of the convention. They were

ROGER SHERMAN 233

both self-made, both masters of the art of “manage-
ment” that makes political bodies accomplish things, and
both had records of long public service; yet in philoso-
phy, in private morals, in personality, and in religion,
they were poles apart. One was an opportunist, the
other decided the minutest questions by reference to some
accepted rule of conduct. When, in the midst of the
chaotic debates that threatened to disrupt the convention,
Benjamin Franklin moved that the meetings be opened
with prayer, he probably did it altogether for its psycho-
logical effect. But when Roger Sherman seconded the
motion, he did it with a devout and fervent belief in the
efficacy of prayer. He was too much of a Puritan not to
believe that divine benedictions would answer their pub-
lic petitions. In this fitting way the two most venerable
of the elder statesmen gathered in Philadelphia in 1787
figured in one of the most dramatic moments of the most
dramatic convention that has ever been held in America.

Franklin indulged in one other stroke in psychology
when he let fall his famous remark about the sunburst on
the Speaker’s chair, making it symbolic of the dawn of a
new day in the history of America. But his eighty-one
years militated against him in the arduous work of the
convention. To Sherman, therefore, fell the exacting
task of reconciling conflicting interests. There were, to
be sure, few Luther Martins in the convention, with
adamant convictions and uncompromising natures. And
others like Ellsworth and Dickinson also sought to com-
promise disputes. Yet Sherman, by reason of his un-
rivalled experience in the Continental Congress, was
easily the leader of this group. It was he who moved
the “Connecticut Compromise,” whereby States were

234 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

equally represented in the Senate and in proportion to
population in the House. Moreover, he had anticipated
such a measure as early as 1776. On many points he
changed his own convictions when it seemed that the
ultimate objects could be achieved in no other way. He
entered the convention believing that the Articles of
Confederation merely needed amendment so as to give
Congress the power “somewhere to draw forth the na-
tional resources.” His biographer, finding that Sher-
man’s defense of the States’ privileges and distrust of the
people had given Calhoun too much comfort, glided
softly around the matter by saying that Sherman yield-
ed to compromises which “gave us not an ideally perfect
national government, but the best perhaps which the
people were willing to bear.” The fact is that Sherman
was very much pleased with the outcome. It promised
to be a safe adjustment of local autonomy with national
interests. But his chief arguments for ratification were
not the excellences of the Constitution so much as the
dangers that would face the people if it were not adopted.

There remained only the question of putting the new
government in force. Early in 1789 the legislature
elected him as a representative in Congress. Deliber-
ately, as usual, he considered the matter. If he accepted,
he must resign as judge. Would the legislature, he asked
Governor Huntington, provide temporarily that his ac-
ceptance would not vacate his judicial position? If not,
he must crave time for further deliberation. The legis-
lature, he was informed, would not. Here was a difficult
decision. Was a state judgeship preferable to a seat in
the national legislature? Most public men, even Fed-
eralists, would probably have answered affirmatively.

ROGER SHERMAN 235

But there was more involved. The credit of the nation
was sinking, commerce was demoralized, the States were
drifting into chaos. The Constitution must be put in
force to end the dangers that threatened to bring democ-
racy and other horrors in their wake. Sherman resigned
his position as judge and set out in his chaise for New
York.

When Hamilton brought forth his scheme for fund-
ing the national debt, assuming the debts of the States,
and establishing a national bank, he found it necessary
to make a famous trade with Jefferson, giving him
enough votes to carry the capital to the Potomac and tak-
ing enough in return to insure the passage of his own
measures. But Sherman’s vote was not in the bargain:
he voted for Hamilton’s measures and against the Po-
tomac site. In doing so he was merely climaxing his
réle as a self-appointed watchman of the nation’s credit.
His slow, ponderous judgments had in them none of the
dash and brilliance that characterized Hamilton, yet the
whole Hamiltonian structure of national finance is a
monument to Sherman’s Yankee shrewdness as well as to
Hamilton’s genius. Long before Hamilton ever thought
of having the finances of the nation in his charge, Sher-
man had suggested a sound currency supported by taxa-
tion and had labored to have the national debt funded.
But the time was not ripe. Not until the Constitution
had been adopted and Hamilton appointed Secretary of
the Treasury did the man and the moment meet.

Two years in Congress and two more in the Senate
Sherman gave to an unremitting support of the great
measures that Hamilton set forth. Then, having spent a
majority of his seventy-two years in honest public service,

236 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

he died in the comforting thought that the safeguard-
ing of the Puritan status guo was at last achieved. Ten
years more and the indubitable evidence of decay in the
props of Federalism as well as Puritanism would have
poisoned his thoughts as it did those of Timothy Dwight
and Fisher Ames and Timothy Pickering.

In a day when too many public officials show a will-
ingness to support any measure that promises a majority
of votes for them, Ralph Earl’s portrait of an awkward
country lawyer, sitting in a plain Windsor chair in the
corner of an unadorned room, deserves contemplation
and reflection. He sincerely believed the people to be
incapable of governing themselves, and said so. The
product of a society that encouraged sobriety and aus-
terity, he was not an affable or even a genial person. Yet
there will be cause to apprehend the future if America
should lose sight of those homely virtues that were the
most cherished values in the Puritanism that produced
Sherman: industry, integrity, and devotion to duty in
public office and private life. A reader of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin once remarked that an institution that could pro-
duce such a character as Uncle Tom could not be alto-
gether bad. Likewise, though there was much in it to
condemn, a Puritan society that could produce a Roger
Sherman surely had a part of the secret for governing
itself.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS
UNPUBLISHED LETTERS
TO WILLIAM B. PIKE

EDITED BY RANDALL STEWART

AWTHORNE’S career in politics, which forms
the background of the following letters to Will-
iam B. Pike,’ an intimate political associate for nearly
twenty years, deserves, perhaps, more emphasis than
it has hitherto received. His political activities may
be said to have begun as early as 1837, when his

1 William B. Pike (1810-1876) was the son of a carpenter whose
trade he followed as a young man and at intervals throughout his life.
Inspired by Andrew Jackson, he joined the Democratic party and be-
came a politician and office-holder. He was associated with Hawthorne
in the custom houses of Boston and Salem. After a brief tenure in the
Boston Custom House (1839-1841), he was removed in accordance with
the principle of “rotation in office.” He was weigher and gauger at the
Salem Custom House from 1845 to 1857, and collector from 1857 to
1861. For additional biographical details, see George H. Holden, “Haw-
thorne Among His Friends,” Harper’s Magazine, LXi11, 260-267, July,
1381.

Pike, according to Julian Hawthorne, “probably knew Hawthorne
more intimately than any other man did” (Julian Hawthorne, Haw-
thorne and His Wife, (Boston, 1885), 1, 444). Rose Hawthorne, who
remembered having seen Pike at “The Wayside” after the return of the
family from England, wrote concerning him: “He was so short, sturdy,
phlegmatic of exterior, and plebeian, that I was astonished at my fa-
ther’s pleasure in his company, until I noticed a certain gentleness in his
manner of stepping [speaking? ], and heard the modulations of his voice,
and caught the fragrance of his humility.” Rose Hawthorne Lathrop,
Memories of Hawthorne (Boston, 1897), 154. For a long description
of Pike by Hawthorne, written in 1839, see ibid., 39-41.

One letter by Pike to Hawthorne, and two letters by Hawthorne to
Pike have been published (see Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 444-447;
Memories of Hawthorne, 150-154, and G. P. Lathrop, Biographical
Sketch of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Complete Works of Hawthorne, River-
side Edition (Boston, 1888), X11, 520-523).

237

238 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

friends, Horatio Bridge, Franklin Pierce, and Jona-
than Cilley, almost succeeded in procuring his appoint-
ment as the Historian of an Exploring Expedition to
the South Seas.* The political influence thus made
operative resulted in Hawthorne’s appointment by
George Bancroft, on January 17, 1839, as measurer in
the Boston Custom House. Partly because of the un-
congenial nature of his duties, and partly because of
his desire to join “Mr. Ripley’s Utopia” at Brook
Farm, he resigned this office on January 1, 1841. Less
than a year after his marriage, Hawthorne was again
eager to secure a political appointment: in his jour-
nal of March 31, 1843, he mentioned the “prospect of
official station and emolument.”* This prospect was
not to be realized, however, until 1846. The interval
of three years was a period of anxiety, because of Haw-
thorne’s impoverished financial condition, and of con-
siderable political activity on the part of both Haw-
thorne and his friends. “Polk’s election,” he wrote to
his wife from Salem on December 2, 1844, “has cer-
tainly brightened our prospects; and we have a right
to expect that our difficulties will vanish, in the course
of a few months.”* A letter to Bridge, dated Salem,
November 29, 1844, indicates that Hawthorne hoped
to be made Postmaster at Salem.* With the very defi-
nite object of promoting his friend’s political interests,
Bridge invited Hawthorne to Portsmouth in July, 1845,
2 See Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 148-158.
* Passages from the American Note-Books (Boston, 1888), 330.

* Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Chicago, 1907), 1, 115.

5 Horatio Bridge, Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne
(New York, 1893), 98-99.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 239

to confer with Franklin Pierce, Charles G. Atherton,
and John Fairfield, all of whom, at that time, were
United States Senators.* After much shrewd manip-
ulation, in which Hawthorne, according to his own
statement, proved himself “considerable of a polliti-
cian,” he was appointed surveyor at the Salem Cus-
tom House on April 9, 1846. His tenure was abruptly
terminated by removal on June 7, 1849." For a period
of three years, Hawthorne enjoyed a respite from pol-
itics. But the nomination of Franklin Pierce as the
Democratic candidate for the Presidency in June, 1852,
brought him back into the political arena as the author
of the campaign biography. After Pierce’s election,
Hawthorne was besieged by office-seekers, since he was
regarded as a man of influence with the new adminis-
tration. His last political office was the consulship at
Liverpool, which he held from August 1, 1853, to Au-
gust 31, 1857.

Except for two intervals, therefore, of two and three
years respectively, 1841-1842 and 1849-1852, Haw-
thorne was involved in politics, either as an office-
seeker or an office-holder, for twenty years. It is only
fair to say, however, that his political activity was mo-
tivated by financial necessity. He received very little
money for his books before the publication of The Scar-
let Letter in 1850; and the increased income from his
writings after that date was not adequate for the grow-

® Bridge, Personal Recollections, 109.

7 From an unpublished letter to Bridge, dated Salem, March 1, 1846,
in the possession of Miss Margaret S. Maurice.

® For the circumstances attending Hawthorne’s dismissal from office,
see Winfield S. Nevins, “Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Removal from the
Salem Custom House,” Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, L111,
97-132, April, 1917.

240 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
ing needs of his family. Official station seemed to be

the only means of subsistence available to him. But
he intensely disliked politicians and political methods.
In a letter to Sophia Peabody, dated Boston, March
15, 1840, he wrote the following vigorous pronounce-
ment:

I do detest all offices—all, at least, that are held on a polit-
ical tenure. And I want nothing to do with politicians —
they are not men; they cease to be men, in becoming poli-
ticians. Their hearts wither away, and die out of their bodies.
Their consciences are turned to India-rubber—or to some
substance as black as that, and which will stretch as much.
One thing, if no more, I have gained by my Custom-House
experience —to know a politician. It is a knowledge which
no previous thought, or power of sympathy, could have taught
me, because the animal, or the machine rather, is not in
nature.”

A feeling of repugnance toward the Salem Custom
House and an eagerness to resign the consulship at Liv-
erpool as soon as he should have accumulated a “mod-
erate competence” are revealed by several passages in
the letters which follow.

But in spite of this aversion to politics, Hawthorne
acquired a good deal of skill as a politician. It was a
disagreeable game, which, nevertheless, he would play
to the best of his ability, since his livelihood depended,
in no small measure, upon success. Several passages in
the following letters suggest an active and sagacious
participation in local political movements. It is hardly
possible, and perhaps unnecessary, to reconstruct in de-
tail the alignments of forces and the rivalries of petty
factions in the Democratic party in the district of Bos-

® Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1, 149.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 241

ton and Salem during the two decades of his political
career. The letters to Pike, however, and other letters,
particularly those to Horatio Bridge,”® show that Haw-
thorne was constantly en rapport with persons and
movements in the contest.

As a political strategist, Hawthorne, it seems, was a
consistent advocate of harmony within the ranks of the
party, for the very utilitarian reason that open warfare
is suicidal. A passage from the letter to Pike dated Bos-
ton, February 10, 1840, is remarkable for its cool cal-
culation:

So far as my personal gratification is concerned, I should like
nothing better than to have you come out upon Bancroft in
the way you propose; but for your own sake, I should advise
you to consider well before taking such a step. It will render
it impossible for him to offer, or for you to receive, any office
hereafter; whereas, as the case now stands, it appears to me
that you may sooner or later be forced upon him. Do not
act hastily; it will never be too late to blow him up; and
you will have other opportunities fully as advantageous. So
long as there is a possibility of his being of use to you, do
not compel him to be your open enemy.”

Passages of similar purport occur in some unpublished
letters to Zachariah Burchmore. Ina letter dated Con-
cord, March 14, 1853, Hawthorne wrote:

I advise you to try to make friends with the enemy, before
proceeding to open war. Perhaps it may be a false alarm,
after all. Do not force them into an attitude of hostility, if
they have not already taken it. If you have an interview
with the President [Franklin Pierce], speak of them in a
friendly way, and do not (unless compelled) act on the sup-
position that they are hostile to you.”

2° Published, in part, in Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Haw-
thorne.

11 See below, page 246.

12 This letter is in the Morgan Library.

242 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

And he wrote to Burchmore again from Concord, on
May 31, 1853:

Meantime, be quiet, and do not let them [the enemy] sus-
pect you of founding your hopes upon any hostile section of
the party. If you declare war against them, and try to fight
your way in, I would not give a “whore’s cuss” (to borrow
an elegant phrase from the old General)"* for your chance
of being re-instated.™*

Here, his efforts toward the establishment of a modus
vivendi were motivated not only by political expediency
but by a genuine friendship for both Burchmore and
Pike, who was, apparently, one of the “enemy.”

Of particular interest are the repeated efforts made
by Hawthorne in behalf of other office-seekers, since
these activities reveal both a commendable altruism and
his importance as a political personage. As early as his
term of office in the Boston Custom House, Hawthorne
was engaged in supporting the candidacy of others. “I
did not write you yesterday,” he explained to Sophia
Peabody on August 25, 1839, “because . . . I had a diffi-
cult letter to project and execute in behalf of an of-

fice seeker.”** In one of the letters to Pike, there is
a reference to a communication of this kind.*° When

Franklin Pierce became President, Hawthorne was in-
strumental in securing for his friend, Ephraim F.
Miller, the collectorship at Salem.” “If I did not save

18 General James Miller, who was collector at the Salem Custom
House while Hawthorne was surveyor there, and to whose character
Hawthorne paid an eloquent tribute in “The Custom House” (see The
Scarlet Letter, Riverside Edition, 36-41).

14 This letter is in the Morgan Library.

15 Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1, 54.

16 See the letter of October 14, 1846.

me Caroline Ticknor, Hawthorne and His Publisher (Boston,
1913), 38.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 243

him [ Miller],” he protested in a letter to Burchmore,
“T should like to know who the devil did.” Better
known are his efforts to obtain political appointments
for R. H. Stoddard” and Herman Melville.” In-
deed, at the time of Pierce’s inauguration, Hawthorne
was the advocate of many applicants: “There is so
much of my paper [i.e., letters of recommendation]
now in the President’s hands,” he wrote to Burchmore,
“that (as the note-shavers say) I am afraid it will be
going at a discount.”* He appealed many times to
Pike’s generosity in behalf of Burchmore and Howard.”
And as a final instance of activities of this kind — when
he resigned the consulship at Liverpool, Hawthorne
sent to President Buchanan, through the intermediary |
agency of Bridge and Pierce, an ardent plea for the
retention of J. L. O’Sullivan as Minister to Portugal.”

The study of Hawthorne’s political career reveals
with special illumination certain distinctive aspects of
his personality: his democracy, his loyalty to friends,
his practicality, his shrewdness, his skill in diplomacy,
and his remarkable sense of humor. Henry James
pointed out “the democratic strain in Hawthorne’s

18 From an unpublished letter, dated Concord, May 31, 1853, in the
Morgan Library.

19 See R. H. Stoddard, Recollections, Personal and Literary (New
York, 1903), 126-127, 134.

20 See Julian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 134.

21 From an unpublished letter, dated Concord, March 14, 1853, in the
Morgan Library.

22 See below: the letters of March 29, 1853; June 19, 1853; July 17,
1856; February 27, 1857; and March 27, 1857.
23 See Bridge, Personal Recollections, 158.

244 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

composition” —a trait which is admirably illustrated
by his friendship with Burchmore and Pike. His loy-
alty to his friends was capable of assuming heroic pro-
portions: witness the often-repeated story of the ded-
ication of Our Old Home.” His letters to political
allies abound in sagacious advice which must have been
received as almost oracular by the Salem junto. He
knew his way among the politicians at Washington.
“Are you fond of brandy?” he asked young Stoddard,
with worldly cynicism; “. . . most of these public men
are inveterate guzzlers, and love a man that can stand
up to them in that particular.”” And throughout his
career in politics, an unfailing sense of humor pre-
vented him from being deceived, for a moment, as to
the real nature of the political occupation. “I think
you must blaze away a little harder in your advertise-
ment,” Hawthorne wrote to Ticknor, apropos of the
forthcoming Life of Franklin Pierce. “We are poli-
ticians, now; and you must not expect to conduct your-
self like a gentlemanly publisher.” His letter in
which he advised Stoddard to accept any post that might
be offered, regardless of his personal qualifications, with
the view of being transferred later, if necessary, to a
more suitable office, is a masterpiece of cynical humor.”
In brief, the worldly and pragmatic Hawthorne, who
is revealed, in part, by such fragmentary materials as

24 Henry James, Hawthorne (New York, 1880), 46.

25 See James T. Fields, Yesterdays With Authors (Boston, 1882), 107-
108.

26 Julian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 461-462.

27 From an unpublished letter, dated Concord, August 25, 1852, in
the Huntington Library.

28 See Julian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 462.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 245

are presented here, must be taken into account in any
view of the man which aims at totality.

Boston, Fesruary 10TH, 1840.”

Dear Pike,

I was not more explicit in reference to those letters because
I did not know their precise purport, and because I was re-
quested not to mention the writer’s name. The letters were
from the representative from Middlesex, and were addressed
to Ball and Colonel Thomas. I have seen Colonel Thomas
this afternoon; and he says that he has since received another
letter, dated the 6th instant which makes no mention of the
Post-Office affair.*° Ball’s letter was dated the 3d.

The result of my personal interview with Colone] Thomas
is that I consider the affair more desperate than when I wrote
you last. Its aspect is so discouraging, that I should not wish
you to take any steps that may compromise yourself, and put
you on worse terms with Rantoul than you are already. It
is by no means clear to me that Woodbury’s name has not
been sent to the Senate.** The letters to Colonel Thomas are
rather negative than positive —he infers that the appointment
is not made, because the writer does not say so. The letter
to Ball is more positive; but (from a fact that has recently
come to my knowledge) I suspect that the writer might have
reasons for wishing to deceive him, and for inducing him to
suppose that he was earnest in my favor. If you draw any in-
ferences from this point, keep them to yourself — but I don’t

2° The following letters, unless it is otherwise indicated, are in the
possession of Miss Margaret S. Maurice.

8° Hawthorne at this time was making an effort, apparently, to secure
the postmastership at Salem, an office which he continued to covet, though
without success, for several years. He wrote to Horatio Bridge from Con-
cord on March 24, 1843: “. . . possibly it [the postmastership] will yet
be the reward of my patriotism and public services” (Personal Recollec-
tions of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 90).

31 The Salem Gazette for February 25, 1840, announced the appoint-
ment, “by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate,” of Charles W. Woodbury as Postmaster at Salem.

246 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

believe that you will guess at the truth. On the whole, I
conclude that we have lost the battle. Nevertheless, if Doctor
Brown™ feels inclined to come out against Woodbury, I
would not do or say anything to prevent him. I impart to
you my present gloomy view of the business, because you have
a claim upon me to know the whole truth. I don’t feel my-
self under much obligation to anybody else; nor do I care how
much they embroil themselves with the Rantoul faction.

What an astounding liar our venerated chief** turns out to
be! I must confess, however, that I do not put implicit
confidence in Palfray’s representation of the matter—his
own conduct having been, in my opinion, not much more
honorable than Bancroft’s. So far as my personal gratifica-
tion is concerned, I should like nothing better than to have
you come out upon Bancroft in the way you propose; but for
your own sake, I should advise you to consider well before
taking such a step. It will render it impossible for him to
offer, or for you to receive, any office hereafter; whereas, as
the case now stands, it appears to me that you may sooner or
later be forced upon him. Do not act hastily; it will never
be too late to blow him up; and you will have other oppor-
tunities fully as advantageous. So long as there is a possi-
bility of his being of use to you, do not compel him to be
your open enemy. I advise you, in the first place, to com-
municate with him in private. If you still resolve to open
your battery upon him, be careful not to compromise Colonel
Hall,** from whom is derived most of our information as to
his being favorable to my application for the Post-Office. As
to myself, you may mention anything that I have said to you,
with the single exception of what was said in reference to
R’s ill opinion of you.

82 Benjamin Frederick Browne (see note 35).

58 George Bancroft (1800-1891), as collector of the port, was the head
official of the Boston Custom House. He was later Secretary of the Navy
in the cabinet of James K. Polk.

54 Colonel Hall was head of the measurer’s department in the Boston
Custom House. Hawthorne was his immediate subordinate and occasion-
ally acted as head of the department during Hall’s absences (see Love
Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1, 64).

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 247

I don’t know how soon I shall be in Salem. I wish you
would come up here and hold a talk. There are some things
that I should like to impart to you, but hardly feel myself at
liberty — certainly not on paper. So I conclude with drink-

ing your health in a glass of hot gin and water, and subscribe
myself,

Your friend,
NaTH[ANIE]L HAWTHORNE.

Bosron, Marcu 19TH, 1840.
Dear PiKeE,

I return Dr. Brown’s Dartmoor manuscript, and beg you
to express my acknowledgments to him for the perusal. It
has afforded me much entertainment and instruction; and I

should suppose that the work might easily be made very ac-
ceptable to the public.**

I have dunned Loring on your account; and he promised

to call immediately on Holman, and pay him half the amount
of the due bill.

I intend to come to Salem on Saturday; and Colonel Hall
has appointed to meet me at the Essex House there, at two
o'clock of that day. He wishes likewise to see you; and as

85 This manuscript was edited later by Hawthorne and, with the ex-
ception of one chapter, was published, anonymously, and in installments,
under the title, “Papers of an Old Dartmoor Prisoner, Edited by Na-
thaniel Hawthorne,” in The United States Magazine and Democratic
Review, January-September, 1846. The chapters in the magazine were
first collected by Mr. Clifford Smyth and were printed, with the addition
of the unpublished chapter, the manuscript of which Mr. Smyth had
discovered, under the title, The Yarn of a Yankee Privateer (New York
and London, 1926). Mr. Smyth conjectured the author to be one John
Lord, a great-uncle of Hawthorne’s. When this conjecture was received
with scepticism, Mr. Smyth’s publishers offered a reward of five hundred
dollars for the solution of the problem. This device resulted in the presen-
tation of evidence, none of which came from Hawthorne himself, tending
to show that the author of the narrative was Benjamin Frederick Browne
(1793-1873). (For a detailed account of the developments following the
publication of The Yarn of a Yankee Privateer, see “Hawthorne’s ‘Pri-
vateer’ Revealed at Last,” The Literary Digest, xcit1, 44-49, April 9,
1927). The passage in Hawthorne’s letter to Pike may be regarded as
definitely establishing Browne’s authorship.

248 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

it is possible that I may not be able to keep the appointment,
I hope you will not fail to be there at the time aforesaid.”
If not fair weather, he probably will not come.

Yours truly,
Natu[anre]it HAwTHorne.

SaLeM, June 28TH, 1840.
Dear Pike,

I have received a letter from the Navy Department, in
answer to the one which you requested me to write.” Mr.
Paulding™ says—“The Department has already referred an
application, made by the Hon. Mr. Parmenter in behalf of
the same person, to Com. Warrington for a report; and I
hope when that is received it will be such as will enable me
to accede to your wishes by directing Cook’s discharge.”

Yours truly,
Natu[AnrE]iL HAwTHorne.

%*1f Hawthorne was unable to keep his appointment, it was because
he preferred to call on Miss Sophia Peabody, who lived in Salem at this
time, and to whom he was engaged to be married.

The proposed meeting of Hall, Pike, and Hawthorne was one of many
political conferences which Hawthorne attended during his lifetime. In a
letter to Sophia Peabody, dated Boston, March 15, 1840, Hawthorne
spoke darkly of a political appointment which would make possible his
residence in Salem near his beloved but which would require his absence
in Washington for extended periods, and added: “Do not be frightened,
dearest—nor rejoiced either—for the thing will not be. It might be, if I
chose; but on multitudinous accounts, my present situation seems pref-
erable.” (Lowe Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1, 149.)

37 Hawthorne’s letter, a copy of which has been sent to me by the
Navy Department, was addressed to J. K. Paulding, Secretary of the
Navy, and requested the discharge from the naval service of one James
Cook, who was a former publisher of The Salem Advertiser, 2 Demo-
cratic paper, and who, it is averred, was mentally deranged at the time
of his enlistment. Cook, according to the naval records, was discharged
on July 23, 1840.

38 Hawthorne’s letter, which is a model of diplomatic correspondence,
concludes with the following complimentary address to Paulding: “It is
with reluctance, Sir, that I have taken this liberty, as being unknown to
you personally, nor perhaps by reputation; and yet, apart from your
official character, I cannot but feel it one of my birth-rights to address
Mr. Paulding, who has made himself the admired and familiar friend
of every reader in the land.”

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 249

Boston, NovEMBER 14TH, 1840.
Dear Pike,

I met Rantoul and Woodbury this morning, on their way
to see Bancroft, in order to intercede on Hill’s behalf, for
my place.” I have understood (but this is a profound se-
cret) that the permanent office has been promised to Seaver.
If this be the case, is there not some danger that Hill will
have the temporary office, which was promised to you?

I do not know what success R & W met with.

Yours truly,
N[ATHANIEL] HAWTHORNE.

SALEM, Ocroser 14, 1846*°
Dear Pike,

I have stretched my conscience to the utmost, and written
the enclosed letter — which I think is quite as strong as Hoyt
can possibly expect. I shall be glad if it do him any good,
but do not believe that Pierce** will take any active inter-
est in the affair.

Pierce knows you well, and has a great respect for your
character and political insight. We have often talked to-
gether about you. A letter from yourself would be quite
as likely to help Hoyt as one from me.

Yours truly,
N[ATHANIEL] H[AwrHorne].

39 By this time, Hawthorne, apparently, had resigned his position in
the Boston Custom House, although the resignation did not take effect
until January 1, 1841 (compare George Edwin Jepson, “Hawthorne in
the Boston Custom House,” Bookman, xX, 573-580, August, 1904). As
early as November 27, 1840, Hawthorne had decided to join “Mr.
Ripley’s Utopia” at Brook Farm (Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
I, 229).

*° This letter is in the possession of Mr. U. S. Milburn.

*1 Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was graduated in 1824 from Bow-
doin College, where he and Hawthorne were members of the Athenzan
Literary Society. He was a United States Senator from 1837 to 1842. In
1846, he was engaged in the practice of law at Concord, New Hamp-
shire; but his importance in political affairs is indicated by the fact that
he was offered, though he declined, the post of Attorney-General in
President Polk’s cabinet.

250 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Wesr Newton, DecemBer 25TH, 1851.
Dear Pike,

I wish you would come and see us; so does my wife,
and so do the children. Come any time, the sooner the
better, and stay as long as you please. You might at least
come out on Saturday afternoon, and go away Monday
morning. Trains leave Boston at 14 past 12, 3, 5%4, 2, 6%,
and leave Newton at 10 minutes past 7, at 8, at 4% past 9
and many other times in the course of the day. So it need
be no interruption to your business. Do come.

Yours truly,
Natu[anre]i HawTHorne.

P.S. Our house is within three minutes walk of the rail-
road.

Concorp (Mass[achusetts]) Juty 20, 52“
Dear Pike,

I think we must have mutually magnetized each other,
and thus brought about the coincidence of sending simul-
taneous letters in reference to your visit. But why should
you not come on Saturday in the cars? ‘The trouble and
expense will be much less; and it will not make more than
an hour’s difference in your return to Salem, on Monday.
The first cars leave here at 7 A.M. The cars leave Boston for
this place at 4 o'clock, (I think) and at % past 6, P.M.
According to your plan, you will be here only a part of a
day; not long enough to do up much talking; whereas, on
my system, we shall have an entire day and two evenings —
so we shall expect you confidently on Saturday at tea-time.

Yours truly,
NatH[AnrE]L HAwTHoRNE.

P.S. We have a barn, but no hay nor corn—so that we
could not put the horse up. Do come in the cars; and if
*2 This letter is in the possession of the Iowa Historical Society. Haw-

thorne was engaged at this time in writing the campaign biography of
Franklin Pierce.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 251

nothing else will satisfy you, we can get a chaise here, and
I could take you part or a whole of the way to Boston, on
Sunday afternoon.

Could you ascertain whether Dora Golden*® (now Mrs.
Inwood) received a package from my wife, within ten days
or thereabouts? She lives in Mason Court, Liberty-street.

Concorp, NovEMBER 12TH, ’52.
Dear Pike, , > 5

I have never heard of a translation of Pierce’s life into
German, and do not believe that such a thing exists. Ow-
ing to its tardy appearance, it could not have been done in
season to be read by our German population, during the
campaign; although portions of it may probably have been
published in the German newspapers.

I met Simon Barstow in Boston and he asked me when
the dinner was to be. For the future, I mean to go to the
city incog.—or, at least, without the knowledge of anybody
in Salem, except yourself. I had hardly a single moment
to myself, during two days that I staid there.**

Truly yours,
N. H.

Concorp, NovEMBER 22D ’52.
Dear Pixe,

I heartily congratulate you on the birth of your baby; for
I doubt not you will love it just as much as if it were your
own.” Being of the feminine gender, she cannot receive
the name which Abby“ intended for her. What if you
should call her Fanny Pierce? —Fanny being the feminine
of Frank.

43 Dora Golden had been a nurse-maid in the Hawthorne family dur-
ing their residence in Salem (Hawthorne and His Wife, 1, 343).

#4 After the election of Pierce on November 4, 1852, Hawthorne, be-
cause of his intimacy with the President-elect, was harassed by office-
seekers.

*5 Presumably the child of one of Pike’s sisters. Pike, who never mar-
ried, lived with three maiden aunts (see below).

*® A nickname for Hawthorne’s sister, Elizabeth.

252 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

I will be at Parker’s®’ at twelve oclock on Wednesday.
If convenient I should like to have a little talk with you,
before meeting Simon Barstow.

My wife and all the family are going to West Newton
on Wednesday, to stay over Thanksgiving. Could you not
come here and stay with me, during their absence? If so,
come to Boston prepared.

Yours truly,
N. HAwTHorne.

Concorp, Marcu 29TH, ’53.
Dear Pixe,

Please to deliver the enclosed to Mr. Lord. I have told
him that I will be in Boston on Thursday —by which time,
probably, the smoke will have cleared away, so that we may
be able to find out whether Zack has done anything. I
rather think I have frightened him so damnably by my let-
ters that he is afraid to come home. Spare the poor devil
—or rather, heap coals of fire upon his head, as Scripture
enjoins.”

*? The bar-room at the Parker House was a favorite place for the meet-
ing of Hawthorne and his political associates. There are descriptions of
the room in Passages from the American Note-Books, 375-376, and in
The Blithedale Romance, 519.

#8 Mrs. Hawthorne’s sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, resided in West
Newton.

*® Zachariah Burchmore was clerk of the Salem Custom House while
Hawthorne was surveyor there (1846-1849). Hawthorne describes him
in “The Custom House” as a “man . . . the observation of whose char-
acter gave me a new idea of talent” (The Scarlet Letter, 41). At the
time of this letter, Burchmore was an applicant for the place of ap-
praiser in the Boston Custom House; and Hawthorne, on March 4, 1853,
had written to Charles G. Atherton in his behalf (the letter was printed
in The Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, August 5, 1883). From an
unpublished letter in the Morgan Library by Hawthorne to Burchmore,
dated Concord, March 14, 1853, one infers that Burchmore had gone
to Washington to advance his political interests and that a faction, led
by Lord, was opposing him. In another unpublished letter in the Morgan
Library, dated Concord, May 31, 1853, Hawthorne wrote to Burchmore:
“I have already taken one step towards a negotiation with the enemy
respecting your being restored to your old place. . . . Be prudent — keep
on good terms with Lord — treat Pike as an old friend, and, if occasion

na fs Ff fF 8©

~~ ss | - BD

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 253

I have a letter from Pierce telling me of my confirma-
tion. I am not to take the office, however, until the first
of August, my predecessor having requested to hold his po-
sition till that date, which is the end of his four years. The
same favor must be granted to me at the end of my term,
or I shall be woefully out of pocket by Pierce’s complai-
sance. I mean to sail in the middle of July.

I want you at Liverpool for your own sake and mine,
and I want it understood beforehand that you are to have
the first situation that it may be in my power to give, so
that I may hold you up as a screen between me and cther
applicants. I don’t think very favorably of taking the in-
dividual whom you mention.

Haley Barstow has applied for the place of my “First As-
sistant” at Liverpool! God deliver me from such assist-
ance!

Truly yours,

Natu[ANIE]L HAWTHORNE.

Concorp, JUNE I9QTH, 53.
Dear Pike,

I fully expected you last night and can’t imagine why
you did not come. There are but two more Saturday
nights before we go; and I want to talk to you about sev-
eral matters— especially about your joining me in Liver-
pool, in case there should be an opening there.

Another subject of considerable uneasiness to me is this
poor devil Zack. I have no idea that Peaslee will do any-

serve, let him know that you regret ever having differed with him, and
that his good offices would now be most valuable to you — say as little
as possible about me, or any other foreign influence — and I think that
ultimately all will go well.” (The letter is unsigned.)

5° Franklin Pierce assumed the presidential office on March 4, 1853;
he nominated Hawthorne Consul at Liverpool on March 23 and the
Senate confirmed the nomination three days later. The Hawthornes sailed
for England on July 6, 1853.

254 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

thing for him; and unless you can find in your heart to
help him, he is utterly lost. To be sure, he deserves noth-
ing—he is a poor, miserable, broken, drunken, disagreeable
loafer, contemptible as an enemy, and only troublesome to
his friends; and for these very reasons, I throw him upon
your generosity. Help him, or he sinks. ‘This, it seems to
me, is the critical point with Zack; and if he is left much
longer in the lurch, he will be past redemption. He is
humbled now, and has come to a proper sense of his own
imbecility; and, so far, adversity will have been good for
him. He will never forget the lesson. But if you really
mean to desert him, his fate is obvious—he will die a
drunkard within two years; and to tell you the truth, Pike,
I shall not envy you your feelings when you stand over his
grave and scent the fumes of the rum oozing up through
the sods—and remember how he was your friend for thirty
years, and never differed with you until within the last five
years of his life, and then only through a silly vanity — and
how he was once able to do you good, and did it, and
never did you any harm, even if he desired it—and how,
at his pinch, you lent him no assistance, merely because he
deserved nothing! In God’s name, which of us miserable
sinners does deserve anything? *

Now I do think that it would be creditable to all of you,
if Zack were permitted to creep back again into his old
clerkship — the only position which he is qualified for, and

51 Hawthorne’s concern for Burchmore’s sobriety is evident as early as
June 9, 1850, when he wrote from Lenox: “Permit me to express a hope
that you will be as abstinent from choice as I am from necessity. Hadn’t
we better make a mutual pledge not to drink a glass of spirits until we
meet again? Awful! I don’t believe you will agree to it, nor stick to it
if you do. As for myself, I could not break the pledge if I wished, liquor
being quite unattainable.” In the same letter, Hawthorne urged Burch-
more’s reconciliation with Pike: “P[ike] has a real affection for you,
and I trust you will not do or say anything that may make it impossible
for you to be friends hereafter. He is certainly not a frank and candid
man like yourself, but I uphold him to be incapable of treachery to his

friends.” (This letter was published in The Boston Saturday Evening
Gazette, August 5, 1883.)

ee ee ae oe. ee ee |

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 255

which no other man can fill so well. You cannot seriously
have any apprehensions of his doing mischief there; he will
be completely under your thumbs, and just as powerless as
he is at this moment. Think over this matter—talk with
Mr. Lord about it, and with Millet, who is far too good a
fellow to kick a man after he is down, and see if it cannot
be arranged. If you doubt about the clerkship, give him a
common Inspectorship.”

Truly yours,
Natu[anreE]_ HAwTHorne.

LiverPoo.t, JANUARY 6TH, ’54.™
Dear Pike, »J » 54

I send a Swedish-English Dictionary**—which please ac-
cept as a New Year’s gift. Should I meet with a portrait
of Kingsley, I will forward it—or if I can catch Kingsley
himself, I will send him in person.

52 Hawthorne’s impassioned appeal, together with his efforts in other
directions, resulted in Burchmore’s appointment as appraiser in the Salem
Custom House at a salary of $1,200 per annum. The appointment was
announced in The Salem Gazette, November 4, 1853.

58 This letter is in the Huntington Library.

54 The following unpublished passage in a letter from Hawthorne to
Longfellow, dated lenox, May 8, 1851, throws some light on Pike’s
study of Swedish: “A friend of mine in Salem — a man of no letters, but
of remarkable intellect — has seen fit to commence his mental cultivation
by the study of Swedish, and with the aid of an old dictionary and a
testament, has made some progress. It occurs to me that you might be
able, and not unwilling, to assist him by the loan of such books as may
suit his needs. You are his poet, and he your most especial worshipper;
so that you ought to display yourself towards him in an attitude of god-
like graciousness, He mentions his desire to read the original of the ‘Chil-
dren of the Lord’s Supper,’ aided by your translation. For my own part,
I should consider a grammar somewhat essential; but being quite new in
the study of languages, I am not sure that he has ever heard of such
a convenience. Now, should it be perfectly agreeable to you to lend him
books that will carry him forward more commodiously than he has here-
tofore proceded [sic], I shall feel it as a favor to myself; he being a
man for whom I have both affection and respect.” (This letter is in the
possession of Mr. H. W. L. Dana.)

256 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

We are having a very disagreeable winter here, and the
Englishmen think there never was any cold so intense. It
is about the same temperature as our mild winter-weather;
but the atmosphere is so moist that it penetrates to the bone.
My family, however, are beginning to get acclimated, and
are much improved in health since I last wrote you. For
myself, I never was better.

In your letter, you seem in doubt what would be the
feelings and conduct of the President, in case certain mat-
ters should be communicated to him by your enemies. In
my opinion, it would not hurt you in the least. He is en-
tirely above any miserable vindictiveness of that sort; and
even as a matter of policy, he would never think of disturb-
ing you. But there is nothing small or mean in his feel-
ings — whatever there may be in his intellect. Should you
ever see reason to apprehend any difficulty, see him and talk
to him frankly.

I am getting along here pretty well, and am prospering
in a moderate way. ‘The Manchester business still remains
as when I wrote you last.” I have some idea of appointing
temporarily an agent, at a small stipend, with the under-
standing that he shall retire whenever a regular vice-consul
makes his appearance. It would be a damnable slice out of
my business, if an independent consul were appointed; and
I am not at all certain that it would not be my wisest way
to offer you the place at £200, (at which my clerks esti-
mate the direct income) if you thought it worth your while
to take it. And it may be worth your while, if the pro-
jected tariff should affect your present office unfavorably
—as I presume it will. At all events, I will not close up
the place in such a way that it may not be open for you, if
required. I don’t deny that I should like to put that £200

55 The letter here referred to, dated Liverpool, September 15, 1853,
was printed by G. P. Lathrop in his Biographical Sketch of Nathaniel
Hawthorne, 520-523. Hawthorne received emoluments from Manchester
as well as Liverpool. Fearing, however, the appointment of a consul at
Manchester, he offered the place to Pike.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 257

into my own pocket, if I can; but if it goes into yours, I
shall not feel as if it were lost. Write me what your feel-
ings and prospects are; and taking your interests and mine
into due consideration. I hope we shall be able to decide
for the best.

Lord called on me, a week or two ago, looking much
better than I expected to see him. He told me that Zach
had got an office—which I knew before. It turns my
stomach to think of that Salem Custom-House. Oh, Pike,
how can you sup your swill at such a hog-trough? I wish
I could blot out from my mind all memory of the years I
spent there. God bless my enemies, say I! If it had not
been for their kind services, I might have been in the Sur-
veyor’s room till this day.

The Atlantic is just in from New-York. Good-by, and
write me soon and often, through Ticknor.™

Your friend,
N[aTHaANIEL] H[AwrHorne].

LIVERPOOL, APRIL 29TH, 54.
Dear Pike, 4 ITH, 54

I think I am running a considerable risk by not putting
in somebody as Vice-Consul for Manchester; and if you
will take it, I shall be glad. You may have the emolu-
ments up to two hundred pounds— which my clerk repre-
sents as about the amount of the present direct income.
With economy, you can live comfortably and handsomely
on that, as a single man. If you decline it, I shall appoint
some American resident of Manchester.

I hardly know what to advise you; but it would certainly
be a great comfort to me to have you out here. At any
rate, decide and let me*know by the next steamer, and if

56 At this time, Pike was weigher and gauger at the Salem Custom
House, with a salary of $1,500 per annum.

5? For an account of Hawthorne’s relations with William D. Ticknor,
see Caroline Ticknor, Hawthorne and His Publisher.

258 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

you conclude to come, write immediately to General Pierce,
telling him of my offer and your acceptance of it. Of
course, if he says nothing to prevent your coming, it will
be an implied pledge that no Consul shall be appointed.
Act promptly; for the business ought not to be left at loose
ends any longer.

You are in my debt for one or two letters. Do write by
the very next steamer.

Your friend,
NatH[AnreE]L HAwTHorne.

P.S. If you don’t take this opportunity to come abroad,

you will never come.

U[nrrep] S[tatres] Consuarte,

Dear Pike, LiverPoot, JUNE 7TH 1854.

You will never see England unless you seize the oppor-
tunity; so come at once. It will give you a new lease on
life. If you stay at Salem, those three old-maid aunts will
be the death of you, by fattening you like a hog. Old
women never know how to show their kindness in any other
way than by giving a man doughnuts and pumpkin pies, and
such infernal trash. IT’ll venture to say this is what has
made you so fat. Come, come, come! You will be able
to live on two hundred pounds; for my clerks support fam-
ilies respectably on less than that.

Do not fail to communicate with the President, as sug-
gested in my former letter, before you leave America.

Your friend,
Natu [ANrE]L HAwTHORNE.

P.S. I would not take the Cunard Steamer, but would
make a saving by taking either one of Train and Co’s junk-
ets (which are equally as safe and almost as speedy) or else
a screw-steamer from Portland or Boston. The sailing
packets are preferable; and the passage, at this season, does
not average more than eighteen days.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 259

I wish you to come very much indeed; but it is for you
to decide, after all, whether it will be for the best. Could
you not hit upon some arrangement for keeping your pres-
ent office open, should you find it desirable to go back to it?
I am not altogether sure that you would like a prolonged
residence in England, though, for a year or two, you would
find it full of interest. At times I have felt such a yearn-
ing for home as I never expected to feel; for I do not con-
sider myself a very ardent patriot; — and, besides, I have my
house with me. I rather think your love of country is bet-
ter than mine.

Still I say — come!

Your friend,
NatuH[AnrE]i HAwTHorne.

May 10 1855
Dear PIKE,

I was very glad to hear from you again, and I wish you
would write oftener. You will have noticed the passage of
the new Consular Bill. I learn from Washington, how-
ever, that the administration do not intend to put it in ef-
fect until after the next meeting of Congress; and, before
that time, I shall have got together about as much money
as there is any use in having. My desires are moderate;
and I have already enough to live upon—besides a pen
which is not yet, I hope, quite blunted.

Can you deliver the enclosed letter. She used to live in
Mason Court, but may have removed.”

Your friend,
NatH[AnrE]L HAwTHorne.

58 A letter to Pike written on an inside page by Mrs. Hawthorne indi-
cates that the reference is to Dora Golden: see footnote 43.

260 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

LiverPoot, DecEMBER 2!IsT, 1855.
Dear Pike,

How are you getting on? Do write, and tell me all
about the cursed old Custom House and its inhabitants, and
especially about yourself. Are you growing rich? You
will have seen that my income has been cut into by Con-
gress, but I have had two good offers” already; and even
now it is not worth much short of $10,000—but do not
tell anybody. I mean to keep it (unless Congress further
curtails it) till next autumn, when I shall consider myself
rich enough to resign.

It is really a grief to me that I am not likely to see you
in England. There is no man whom I should like so much
to have for a companion; and I never see anything inter-
esting without thinking of you.

Your friend,
N[atHante_] H[AwrHorne].

LiverPoo., JuLy 17TH, 1856.
Dear Pike,

I shall certainly not put in for any other person, in this
business of the Collectorship;*° indeed, I have no interest
that would do anybody any good, or I would give it to you.
I presume you will not make your push till Buchanan™
comes in.

It sickens me to hear of this accursed Custom House
again, and to find you still fighting the old battle, and
throwing away, on these miserable squabbles, a heart and
intellect from which I used to hope for such high things.

5® Hawthorne had been offered, but had declined, the post of Minister
to Portugal (Bridge, Personal Recollections, 148). What the second
offer was is not known.

®° Pike aspired to the collectorship in the Salem Custom House — an
office to which he was appointed the following February.

61 James Buchanan (1791-1868) was ambassador to England during
Franklin Pierce’s administration and succeeded Pierce as President of
the United States (1857-1861).

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 261

Forgive me, my dear Pike; but I could not help saying this.
I wish the Custom House would sink under your feet, tak-
ing along with it every devil in the lot, only leaving you
above ground, a free man.

I enclose a note to John D. Howard,” who has written
me the most dolorous letter I ever read, in which he won-
ders why he was born —and, to say the truth, so do I. He
is apparently in the last stage of pauperism; and should he
be starved before my note reaches him, I shall reckon it the
best thing that could happen. I have sent him a draft for
ten dollars, and that is all I can do; for all the beggars in
creation beset me here, besides a host of poor connections
on your side of the water. If you get the Collectorship, I
charge you to do something for this miserable, God-for-
gotten cripple! Let it be the first thing you do, and (he
being such a wretched and useless simpleton, so destitute of
friends and interest) perhaps God may set it off against
many wicked acts of policy that you will hereafter do, and
so grant a blessing to your administration. And can’t you
get up a subscription for him, now?

Mrs. Hawthorne and the children have returned to Eng-
land,” and are now at Blackheath, near London. Her
health is much improved, and I have strong hopes that she
will be able to spend the winter in this country, without
detriment. Una is very much grown, and is a fine, intelli-
gent, good girl, and a great comfort to her father. All my
three children are as good or better than any that I see else-
where; and I thank God for them. It will be a long
while yet before you see them and me; for we mean to
spend at least two years on the Continent. To say the truth,
there is no great inducement to return to our own country,
where you seem to be on the point of beating one another’s
brains out.

Write again soon,

Sincerely yours,
Natu[aAnre]L HAwTHOoRNE.

P.S. I shall send the note to Howard separately.

62 Howard had been naval officer in the Salem Custom House during
Hawthorne’s term as surveyor.

63 Because of ill health, Mrs. Hawthorne, accompanied by Una and
Rose, had spent the winter in Lisbon, where J. L. O’Sullivan was United
States Minister.

262 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

LiverPoo.t, Fesruary 27TH 1857.
Dear Pike,

I see that you have got the appointment. Accept my
congratulations, and also my commiserations. God bless you,
anyhow. If you ever get to Heaven, it will be owing to some
wonderful goodness in your original nature, which could not
be spoilt even by the Salem Collectorship. Remember that
poor devil Howard and do let poor Zack have a little foot-
hold within your precincts.”

I have resigned my office, to take effect in August.”
Buchanan may perhaps turn me out sooner but that will not
trouble me. I can live, in spite of him.

Your friend,
Natu[AnreE]L HAwTHorne.

LiverPoo.t, Marcu 27TH, ’57.
Dear Pixe,

In my former letter (and I hope you have kept it, so that
you may see) I did not mean to express, or to hint, any dis-
approbation of your having been a candidate against Eph.,”
or of your seeking the Collectorship, except as it was likely
to keep you in a sphere of action such as I felt to be un-
worthy of man in his highest capacity. Ever since I knew
you, I have wanted you to do some higher and better thing
than other men are able to do, and have often grieved (and
made no secret of it to yourself) that fate has persisted in

** The official appointment of Pike as collector in the Salem Custom
House, superseding Ephraim F. Miller, was announced in The Salem
Gazette, February 20, 1857.

®° Burchmore, presumably, retained his position as appraiser during
Pike’s term of office. I have found, however, no record of an appoint-
ment for Howard.

®* Hawthorne sent his resignation to President Buchanan, to take effect
August 31, 1857 (Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 157).
He was not actually relieved by his successor until October, 1857: Letters
of Hawthorne to William D. Ticknor (Newark, 1910), 1, 63.
®? Ephraim F. Miller.

HAWTHORNE AND POLITICS 263

keeping you in that vile Custom House. As to Eph., I know
very well that he has no shadow of a claim to the Collec-
torship, and never ought to have been appointed. Moreover,
it was quite impossible for him to have kept the office a day
longer. And of all men living (if the Collectorship is a
really good and desirable thing) I should wish you to have it.

I am happy to tell you that I have resigned the Consulate.
It has not proved quite what I expected, in point of profit,
but still, as my books have been selling profitably during
these past four years, I have acquired from all sources what
I may call a moderate competence. During my further stay
in Europe, I shall probably spend more than my income; but
after my return, I shall be able to live at less expense, and,
by writing one or two more books, shall make up for over-
expenditures. It is a vast relief to me, to feel that my wife
and children will be left in comfortable circumstances, in
case of my death. I may say, in this respect, “the bitterness
of death is past.”

It will probably be two years yet before we return; and
when we do come, I shall want your advice about making
additions to my house, or building a new one, or selling my
place at Concord and buying another. Perhaps you and I
will finally settle down in each other’s neighborhood.”

My wife is very well, and so are the children,

Your friend,
NatH[ ANnrE]L HawTHorNe.

P.S. Remember Howard; and pray heap a few more
coals of fire on Zack’s head.
*8 Compare I Samuel 15:32.

®° The Hawthornes returned to live at “The Wayside,” in Concord, in
June, 1860.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR.,
THE REFORMER IN POLITICS

MERLE E. CURTI

IKE father, like son. That was what many a citizen
of Beverly, Massachusetts, must often have said
when the Rantouls were mentioned. More than one dis-
appointed father probably cherished some little envy of
the elder Rantoul, apothecary, justice of the peace, and
county commissioner, a man who had been representa-
tive of the town in the General Court for a quarter of a
century. For it was the fortune of this good and gentle
citizen to see in his namesake a man after his own heart.
Both father and son were reformers and humanitarians
by temperament and conviction. Both preferred to work
with a party which, in their community and state, was in
the minority. One was as zealous as the other in cham-
pioning human rights and restricting property rights
whenever they threatened the under-dog. In a period
scarcely noted for religious tolerance, both befriended
that cause. Before the son’s early death at the age of
forty-seven, the father saw him fight for their convic-
tions on a larger stage, with more talents and success than
had been his to enjoy.

The father lived also to see at least some progress
made in many of the causes dear to him. He had early
championed Unitarianism and in his correspondence with
the famous Rammohun Roy of Calcutta contributed
something to the clarification of Unitarian principles.’

1 “Reminiscences of Robert Rantoul, Sr.,” Historical Collections of the
Essex Institute, vi, April, 1864, 90.

264

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 265

Long before his death, in 1858, Unitarianism had be-
come both respectable and influential. In 1810 he had
founded what was perhaps the first Sunday school in
America; when he died, a half century later, there were
thousands of them. Long before the Massachusetts Tem-
perance Society was formed in 1812, he had advocated
its principles. He could remember being jeered at for
dispensing no liquor at a funeral, but by 1858 an im-
posing number of states boasted of anti-liquor legisla-
tion. Having served in the militia during the war of
1812, he became an early member of the Massachusetts
Peace Society, which was formed in 1816; and long be-
fore 1858 that cause had enlisted, both in America and
in Europe, distinguished advocates who justifiably
claimed certain definite achievements. Popular educa-
tion, to which in a very humble way the elder Rantoul
contributed, had carried the day in both the North and
the West long before he settled down, in the fifties, to
write his mellow reminiscences. As early as 1809 he had
publicly denounced capital punishment; before his death
more than one state had made notable headway in re-
ducing the number of offenses punishable by death. A
share of spoils and power had even come to the Demo-
cratic party in Massachusetts — a mere skeleton battalion
when he joined its ranks. Scarcely a futile life, the elder
Rantoul’s. In one thing alone in which he had been con-
cerned were there no significant victories to record: the
power of corporate wealth, with its privileges and its
social irresponsibility, had steadily gained momentum.
Such was the background of Robert Rantoul, Jr. Like
his father, he was (and remained to his early death, in

266 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

1852) a minority man, a protestant against social habits
and institutions. His life and work illuminate some of
the problems of the reformer in politics, and serve as a
measuring rod of the strength and limitations of the tal-
ented figures who bend their efforts towards social and
economic amelioration through the game of politics.

At the age of three Robert, Junior, taught himself to
read. His father, whose schooling had been meager, sent
him to Andover and to Harvard. Those who knew him
best told of his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and
his intellectual independence. Frequently he studied
fourteen out of twenty-four hours, though he was far
from being a “grind.” Indeed, though chosen valedic-
tory poet by the class of 1826, he was by no means,
scholastically, in the first rank. He liked too much to do
things in his own way. One could hardly call him an orig-
inal thinker, but he was blessed with an acquisitive mind
and a remarkable memory.”

From college Rantoul went to Salem, where he read
law; in 1829 he was admitted to the bar. With a good
knowledge of reports, he was no mere case lawyer: a
precedent was nothing to him unless it rested on prin-
ciple. To his legal opponents he was never so dangerous
as when pushed or crowded; then his moral conviction
released great powers, compelled the careful attention
of the court, and with sudden, inspired might more often
than not carried the day.”

2 Luther Hamilton, Ed., Memoirs, Speeches and Writings of Robert
Rantoul, Jr. (Boston, 1854), 3 ff.

* Charles Levi Woodbury, “Some Personal Recollections of Robert
Rantoul, Jr.,” Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, xxiv, 1898,
197-

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 267

Simple in his tastes, without any assumption or pre-
tense, Rantoul was affable and friendly. His was a strik-
ing figure — slender, not very robust, medium in height,
but arresting. His high brow, his dark, full eyes, his sal-
low complexion, suggested his scholarly interests; his
rapid, fluid, and effective speech made him, in spite of
his penetrating, even shrill voice, a prince among
debaters.*

In his later years his library was that of a gentleman
and a scholar, rich in rare and important volumes on his-
tory, politics, economics, law, science, and travel.° All his
life he dreamed of writing a history of medizval France,
and collected a mass of material for a task he could never
find time to accomplish. It was no wonder that people
like Nathaniel Hawthorne endured the chill of his un-
heated office at 8 Court Square, Boston, to share with so
generous a comrade his graceful learning.

Rantoul was ready to sacrifice much rather than to
keep silent when he felt deeply. He did feel deeply about
a good many causes he knew to be unpopular. Adherence
to these was certain to interfere with political success, for
which he was ambitious. He hated privilege and power,
especially when used in violation of human rights. When
the bulk of the orthodox clergy and lawyers defended
capital punishment, he opposed it. When the rich ob-
jected to taxation for public schools, he insisted that

* Honorable Eben Stone, 4n Address Delivered Before the Essex Bar,
Feb. 2, 1889 (Salem, 1889), 35 ff. There is a portrait by Joseph Ames
in the State House in Boston. George S. Boutwell, Reminiscences of Sixty

Years in Public Affairs (New York, 1902), 1, 119, thought that as a
debater Rantoul had few equals in the state.

5 Catalogue of the Valuable Private Library of the late Robert Rantoul,
Jr. (Boston, 1859).

268 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

free educational privileges were the right of every one.
His advocacy of temperance, free trade, and interna-
tional peace grew out of his conviction that the pur-
pose of society was the development of free, happy,
and growing individuals. From Jefferson he borrowed
the principle that the government which governed
least was the best possible one; yet no one was more
alert than he in insisting that government prevent
powerful individuals, in the interest of their prop-
erty, from exploiting other individuals less advan-
tageously placed. These principles, at the cost of some
political sacrifices, Robert Rantoul, Jr., maintained
fairly consistently all his life.

Laboring men found in this young idealist a stout de-
fender. It is not too much to say that he gained for them
their first important victory in the courts of Massachu-
setts. In 1840, some journeymen boot-makers, in their
effort to induce all the members of their craft to join
their organization, were indicted in Boston for conspir-
acy, and, after losing their case in the lower court, ap-
pealed to the Supreme Court, over which Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw presided. In his defence of the boot-
makers, Rantoul demonstrated the emptiness of the legal
fiction that the employee was, in person and in choice,
as free as his employer. Insisting that the journeymen
had a clear right to do as a combination whatever they
had a right to do as individuals, Rantoul carried the day.
This case, Commonwealth vs. Hunt et al, was “the first
judicial appreciation of the possible good in labor organ-
izations,”® and in spite of the fact that later decisions

® Theron Metcalf, Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Su-
preme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (Boston, 1864), IV, 111-1373
George Gorham Groat, Attitude of American Courts in Labor Cases
(New York, 1911), 50.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 269

ate into the principles and reasoning of Rantoul and
Shaw, this was a notable and influential victory for col-
lective bargaining.

After the Dorr Rebellion, this champion of human
rights defended, with Daniel Webster as an opponent,
some of the leaders who had been indicted for revolu-
tionary attempts." Sweeping aside legal technicalities,
Rantoul upheld in a broad manner the human rights of
the defendants, and his argument entitles him to be re-
garded as a pioneer in sociological jurisprudence.

Appointed by Polk, in 1845, as United States district
attorney for Massachusetts, Rantoul, in a series of cases,
won an enviable reputation as an able constitutional law-
yer. In the New Bedford bridge case he grappled with
the tough problem of state and federal sovereignty;
he prosecuted the Spitfire, a slaver, and effected the con-
demnation of the vessel and the conviction of her master.
And in other cases which he prosecuted he was no more
tender of property rights when they violated social jus-
tice. Years later he widened still further the breach be-
tween the conservatives of Massachusetts and himself
by defending Thomas Sims, a Negro of Boston, who
was claimed by a slave-owner.*

While a member of the judiciary committee in the
Great and General Court (1835-1839), Rantoui la-
bored for the humanization of the harsh criminal code.
No one during the middle period, unless it was Edward

™ Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 25 ff.
8 Ibid., 28 ff, 49 ff.

270 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Livingston, contributed more than he to the movement
for the abolition of capital punishment.’ Efforts to re-
fute his comprehensive report on that subject, presented
to the legislature in 1836, were lame and faltering.”
In both America and Europe Rantoul’s report was cited
frequently. On the grounds both of expediency and hu-
manitarianism its author attacked capital punishment
—still, at that time, the legal penalty for six crimes. He
committed his party to the cause, and, thanks in large
part to his efforts, Massachusetts modified its laws with-
in ten years.

No less unpopular was the cause of public education,
and no less fearless were Rantoul’s efforts in its behalf.
His interest in this reform was due to his championship
of the unprivileged classes and to his faith in the power
of reason and enlightenment to ameliorate an unjust
social and economic order. In 1829} with the codperation
of a few men whom he interested in the movement, he
established a lyceum in Beverly. When the Massachu-
setts State Board of Education was founded, in 1837,
Rantoul was made one of its members, and he remained
for some years a most effective one. On platforms and
in periodicals, he pleaded for generous state support. He
spoke at numerous conventions held by the friends of
popular education and edited a “Workingman’s Li-
brary” to further the cause." He hoped for too much

® Charles Sumner, “Robert Rantoul, Jr.”, Works (Boston, 1875-1883),
11, 76 ff.

10 The report is printed in Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writ-
ings, 436-492. See also Benjamin Dole, 4n Examination of Mr.
Rantoul’s Report for Abolishing Capital Punishment in Massachusetts
(Boston, 1873).

11 North American Review, ci (October, 1838), 273-318; Hamilton,
Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 66 ff.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 271

from it: in believing that free education, together with
a free press, would adequately safeguard the people
against the “aristocratical tendencies” of accumulated
capital, Rantoul was perhaps less realistic than his con-
temporaries, who insisted on the necessity of more fun-
damental economic re-organization. It would not be
rash — at least from the point of view of those interested
in achieving progress in their own day —to assert that
his efforts at reform were weakened by his excessive
faith in so abstract a palliative as popular education.

Like his father, Rantoul advocated the unpopular
cause of temperance. He would not heed the warnings
of party leaders to let it alone. He could not go so far
as to advocate sumptuary legislation to remedy the
abuses of excessive drinking: his Jeffersonian principles
would not let him stomach that. But he did favor the
punishment of the retailer who sold liquor to persons
known to make an improper use of it, and thus became
an early advocate of “responsible drinking.” Primarily,
however, he trusted to education and moral suasion as
the most effective means of curbing any social evil such
as intemperance.”

Like his father he witnessed, even in the short span
of his active years, appreciable social benefit from all
these humanitarian efforts. He could even feel that
something had been achieved in the battle, which of all
his battles, was the most dramatic and fundamental.
This was his contest in behalf of “the fishermen and
sailors, of the shoemakers and workingmen, of the

12 Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 339 ff.

272 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

farmers and shipbuilders, against aristocracy, feudalism,
money power and bank bought oligarchy.”” In his war
against the unjust privileges of power and wealth, Ran-
toul singled out for frontal attack the corporation. His
allies were the loco-foco Democrats; his enemies, the
bankers and capitalists of Boston. When Harvard in-
sisted on an exclusive right to control the traffic over the
Charles River, he delivered an animated speech in the
legislature, in which he defended the rights and needs
of the common man against this privileged corporation.
His opposition to the claims of his Alma Mater was an
important factor in establishing the principle that “the
people of Massachusetts have a right to build, with their
own money, their own bridges and highways; and when
built and paid for, to travel them without asking leave
of any corporation.”"* Rantoul also insisted, while a
member of the legislature, on a critical inspection of the
charters for which corporations petitioned, and he urged
the necessity of specific limitations on power and privi-
lege. Sometimes he was successful ; sometimes he failed.
When Boston bankers and merchants petitioned in 1836
for a “ten million dollar bank,” he fought them tooth
and nail, and won a victory. So long as he could stand
in the way, no powerful bank should take advantage of
the uninitiated by inflating the currency. On other oc-
casions, too, this Democrat threw a monkey-wrench into
the Whig machinery devised to succour “the children
of Mammon.”

13 Woodbury, “Some Personal Recollections,” 202.
1* Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 322-327.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 273

But his larger warning that the laws governed the
poor, and the rich governed the laws, fell on deaf ears.
No heed was paid to his indictment of the social irre-
sponsibility of corporations —to his description of the
great mischief they were capable of making by stimulat-
ing the creation of illusory wealth. Excessive loans, reck-
less speculation, consequent depression: these were the
evils he denounced in pointing out that they were but
means of “fertilizing the rich man’s fields by the sweat
of the poor man’s brow.” But even the poor man was
anxious to follow the methods of the rich and arrive at
a comparable station in life; and he did not long re-
member Rantoul’s warnings.

One can better understand this indifference when one
realizes that even those who see abstract principles
clearly, may, because of emotional factors of which they
are not even aware, act in ways inconsistent with those
principles. We might suppose that Rantoul, of all peo-
ple, would have practised what he preached; but he,
too, was infected by the dominant desire for expansion
and development. Indeed, the irony of it was that he
himself shared the poor man’s yearnings for future eco-
nomic power. That is why his battle against corporate
wealth was essentially tragic and futile.

It was the western fever that finally got Rantoul. He
served a kind of apprenticeship to the railroad interests
of his own state, and then embarked on larger enter-
prises. From 1845 to 1850 this son of Massachusetts
was to be found less often at home than in the Missis-
sippi valley. Anticipating that it was to become the seat
of empire, he was glad to be a trustee in a group in-

274 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

cluding Webster, Choate, and Cushing, the purpose of
which was to get possession of the headwaters of the
Mississippi and there to establish a great lumber enter-
prise with mills for exploiting virgin forests, and mines
for extracting rich mineral resources lying ready to be
unearthed. But all the promise of this “St. Croix and
Lake Superior Mineral Company” came to naught.
Their land titles were disputed in the courts; their boom
yielded to spring freshets which set free the whole win-
ter’s store of logs; and Rantoul’s partners, absorbed in
other pressing matters, left him to extricate himself as
best he could. Instead he went down to financial ruin.”

Once infected, however, with the pioneer’s spirit of
industrial enterprise, Rantoul had to try again. His en-
thusiasm for railroad development was nourished by his
belief in free trade: he had always felt that everything
ought to be done to forward the greatest possible degree
of unrestricted commerce. Had he not always opposed
protective tariffs because they were, in his eyes, unjusti-
fiable taxes on the poor in the interest of a small minority
of the rich? Would not the rapid development of rail-
roads promote internal free trade, strengthen the Union,
and aid the common man?” Sincerely thinking so, he
plunged headlong into railroad promotion, becoming the
servant of a group of Boston and New York capitalists
who were trying to persuade the wishful but cautious
legislature of Illinois to grant a generous charter. The
New England reformer drew up a charter and lobbied
at Springfield for its acceptance — he who in Massachu-
setts had fought corporate wealth when it asked for
special privileges. The tall, gaunt, western lawyer and

15 Robert S. Rantoul, Personal Recollections (Cambridge, 1916), 245
26.

16 Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 679 ff.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 275

politician who fought his efforts at Springfield —it was
Abe Lincoln — was no match for the persuasive orator
from the East.” The Illinois Central charter went
through the legislature; and it was a generous charter.
It was, indeed, so liberal that the children of the pioneer
legislators who granted it must have cursed their fathers
when, in their own time, the railroad mulcted them by
high freight rates and questionable dealings.

To further his ends Rantoul had very early in life
become affiliated with the Democratic Party, because he
believed it to be more progressive and hospitable to-
wards humanitarian reforms than its rival. Without di-
recting its policy, he yet played an important part in it.
He upheld Jackson’s bank veto, defended the removal
of the deposits, and championed the independent treas-
ury. Until 1838, when he moved from Gloucester to
Boston, he had lived in the country, and might well have
associated with the “country” faction of the Democracy,
which was led by Marcus Morton.” Instead, he allied
himself with the “city” group of David Henshaw, a
supporter of the “Southern principles” of Tyler and
Calhoun. Rantoul’s anti-slavery views made this choice
the more unusual. It has been implied” that he thought
the Henshaw faction promised more in the way of po-

17 Robert S. Rantoul, Ms. Letter to W. N. C. Carlton, Newberry Li-

brary, and Reminiscences, 27. See also O. H. Meyer, Transportation in
the United States before 1860 (Washington, 1917), 532-533-

18 Marcus Morton Letter Book, 1845-1849, Massachusetts Historical
Society, 1v, Morton to George Bancroft, July 3, 1845; Arthur B. Darling,
Political Changes in Massachusetts 1824-1848 (New Haven, 1926),
214 ff.

19 Darling, Political Changes, 284, 308, 321, 356.

276 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

litical advancement, and it is true that for supporting
the Tyler-Calhoun faction he was, in 1843, rewarded
with the collectorship of customs in the port of Boston.
During the campaign of 1844 he supported Polk
throughout the Northwest, and was, as we have seen,
made district attorney for Massachusetts. It is possible,
however, that his strict constructionist views, rather than
mere opportunism, may have had something to do with
his choice of factions.

Be that as it may, Rantoul moved steadily toward the
anti-slavery wing of the Democracy. If he was regarded
in 1844 as a “pro-Southern man”, he had none the less
furthered the anti-slavery activities of Whittier as early
as 1837." By 1848 he was all but ready to vote for the
“free soil” candidate, Martin Van Buren.” It was his
codperation with the unpopular Free-Soilers which re-
sulted in his election to the Senate in 1851 for the re-
mainder of Webster’s unexpired term. He who had suf-
fered for advocating unpopular causes such as temper-
ance and the abolition of capital punishment now found
preferment because of his support of the free soil cause
which his conservative foes of State Street opposed. In
1851 Rantoul was elected, again as a result of coalition,
to the House of Representatives, where he defended his
alliance with Free-Soilers against the attacks of Hunkers
and southern Democrats.”

Rantoul’s speech at Lynn on April 3, 1851,” justified

20M. A. DeWolfe Howe, The Life and Letters of George Bancroft

(New York, 1908), 1, 249-250; Samuel T. Pickard, Life and Letters of
John Greenleaf W hittier (London, 1895), 1, 142-143, 188, 199, 200-201.

21 T. W. Higginson, Elegy without Fiction.

22 Arthur Gleason Bean, “Party Transformation in Massachusetts,”
Harvard College Library, 93-94.

23 Hamilton, Memoirs, Speeches and Writings, 729 ff.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 277

Theodore Parker’s remark that he was “a northern man
with northern principles.” In this speech he refused to
accept the finality of the Compromise of 1850: he could
not support the Fugitive Slave Law. It is significant that
he based his opposition to it, not on moral and humani-
tarian, but on constitutional grounds. He held that the
Federal Constitution did not give the central govern-
ment the power of enforcing such a law: that power was
reserved to the states; and, in any case, due process of
law must be observed in its enforcement. Here was a
man who could find constitutional reasons for the main-
tenance of human rights when they came into conflict
with property rights. It was also in this speech that he
unequivocally stated why he valued the Union: with-
out it, war between the contending North and South
would be the order of the day. For war he had no heart
whatever; to prevent it, he would make great sacrifices.

For jeopardizing the Fugitive Slave Law, and for his
political independence generally, Rantoul was read out
of his party. Although legally elected from his district
to the Democratic national convention in 1852, he was
unseated. Yet he remained loyal to the party and wrote
Sumner that he would vote for its candidate.** He did
not live long enough to do so.

After his unexpected death in August, 1852, individ-
ual associates lamented his passing. Sumner, in behalf
of reformers and anti-slavery crusaders, paid a generous
tribute to him in the Senate.” Whittier, with whom Ran-

24 Roy Franklin Nichols, The Democratic Machine 1850-1854, Co-
lumbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, CX,

No. 1 (New York, 1924), 133-134, 147-
25 Charles Sumner, Works, 111, 76-82.

278 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

toul had shared lodgings when they were members of
the legislature, eulogized him in a stirring poem.” But
public bodies expressed no regret. The Boston Bar,
usually forward in noticing the death of its members,
kept silent. The city did not go into mourning for the
“demagogue” whom State Street had always so bitterly
denounced. Years before, respectable citizens of Salem
had protested against his appointment to the collector-
ship of the port of Boston, regarding him as a mere
“busy, declamatory politician.” Even Emerson had
found him wearisome and something of a demagogue.”
But his death was nevertheless a great loss to the Demo-
cratic Party, especially to its anti-slavery wing — and
even a greater one to the ideals and reforms for which
he had labored.

In a sermon preached shortly after Rantoul’s death,
the Reverend Thomas Wentworth Higginson charac-
terized him as a “fair specimen of the best that a man
can be, and yet be a great American statesman.”” His
career might indeed be taken as a text for a sermon on
“the reformer in politics.” What can one say of him in
that relationship? Aithough Rantoul did not openly
compromise his convictions to secure political advance-
ment, yet he did undoubtedly identify himself with that
faction of the Massachusetts Democracy less hospitable
to his views than its rival. Had he taken up with the

26 The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (Boston
and New York, 1900), 188.

27 Reverend John Brazer to Levi Lincoln, Salem, August 30, 1843:
Levi Lincoln Papers, 1796-1857: Massachusetts Historical Society, and
passim.

28 Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, viii, 113 (April 19, 1850).
2° Higginson, Elegy without Fiction.

ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. 279

Morton crowd, he might not have been appointed col-
lector of the customs and district attorney. These ap-
pointments on the one hand aided him in his political
career, and on the other enabled him to do more for the
causes he believed in than he could have done out of
office and in the camp of the less conservative group
whose principles were more nearly his own. Half a loaf
probably seemed better to him than no loaf at all.
Whether he would have been able effectively to pro-
mote anti-slavery principles when his party was rapidly
becoming more conservative is a question which his un-
timely death makes it impossible to answer. Quite prob-
ably he would have left the Democrats and allied him-
self with the new and more radical Republicans.

It is noteworthy that he made no permanent contri-
bution in his fight against corporations, which, long be-
fore his death, were exerting a dominant influence. He
had even helped to create as powerful a corporation as
the Illinois Central, though he does not seem to have
been conscious of the inconsistency involved. It was easy
to rationalize this defence of vested interest by pointing
to the ultimate gains which the railroad would bring to
the people of Illinois. Instead of taking two steps for-
ward and one step backward, Rantoul took a step for-
ward and a step backward, without even realizing that
he was doing so. In a technical sense he did not, indeed,
compromise with his convictions against corporations;
but his distinction between actual and potential, or “ex-
pectant,” capitalism was unjustifiable. A more self-
critical man might have realized that railroads, too,
would sooner or later be capable of encroaching on hu-
man rights.

280 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Robert Rantoul’s fight against financial and industrial
capitalism was, in fact, futile and impotent. Why? When
he fought the “ten million dollar bank” charter, he was
working, for the moment, with the tide: he was sup-
ported by the anti-monopolist feeling which found ex-
pression loco-foco Democracy. When he persuaded the
farmers in the legislature of Illinois to accept the charter
of the Illinois Central, which was endowed with the
power of exploiting Illinois pioneers and their children,
he was again, in a more significant sense, working with
the tide —that is to say, with the dominant economic
tendency of the time. Hence, in these things he suc-
ceeded. But his verbal indictments of the social irrespon-
sibility and grave evils of corporations were merely mi-
nor eddies in the main stream. Had he worked out a con-
sistent and thoroughgoing philosophical criticism of the
existing economic order, it is true that he would prob-
ably have remained a theorist without any political ca-
reer at all. His ideas, however, might conceivably have
provided a program for a later reaction against the eco-
nomic status quo. Perhaps by choosing to be a reformer,
he lost the opportunity of being an American Marx. As
it was, Rantoul did contribute, in a minor way, to the
protection of human rights, although his contributions
were not materially to change the pattern of historical
development. His career suggests that impotency is the
inescapable fate of reformers in politics. Is it their
dilemma either to compromise their convictions by too
often casting their lot with dominant forces or else to
remain remote in the realm of theory? Is there no other
way?

CONTEMPORARY SONGS AND VERSES
ABOUT WASHINGTON

MARY W. SMYTH

URING the Revolutionary War, as for many years

previously among colonial Americans, when news-
papers were scarce or still too expensive to enjoy a wide
circulation, the news of the day was frequently written
on single sheets, called broadsides. Sometimes these were
done in prose but more often they appeared in verse, to
be carried about from village to village on horseback.
Local singers improved every opportunity not only to
eulogize Yankee heroes and celebrate their victories in
battle, but to spread melancholy tales of the latest trag-
edy—accident, murder, or execution. As they travelled
about hawking their own songs, oftentimes riding for
many miles through the countryside (much as the old
ballad-singers used to do in England centuries ago),
they found such ready market for their verses that
they were able to add tidy sums to family incomes.
Broadside writing, besides being a popular pastime and
a common method of disseminating news, became a
profitable business among country folk.

Written frequently by men of little education, these
broadside verses, though crude and illiterate, often
showed traces of the power of genuine old ballads, both
in the substance and the phraseology of which our fore-
fathers from England were naturally steeped. Many of
them, though called songs, were not actually set to music

281

282 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

and sung, being scattered in print rather than transmitted
orally from singer to singer. So much in demand they
were, however, that this feature did not detract from
their popularity, especially when they dealt with local
events. Of such, the broadsides of Thomas Shaw, of
Standish, Maine, are an example. His great specialty was
“mournful songs,” which in some cases ran into two or
three editions, numbering several thousand copies. Dull-
est of the dull and interminably long drawn out they
certainly are, but no worse in this respect than the work
of Lawrence Price, an English broadside writer of the
seventeenth century, some of whose verses are to be
found in Child’s collection of English and Scottish Pop-
ular Ballads. Shaw may well be called an American Law-
rence Price, being one of the very earliest broadside
writers in this country. His first song, called “1776,”
tells of his march from Maine with friends and neighbors
to join Washington’s army in Cambridge, and of the
year spent there under conditions that offered many
temptations to sin, though, in spite of them, as he proud-
ly avers, he still remembered his God throughout that
hard, long year. When first ordered out on guard, the
raw Maine soldiers found the unaccustomed work very
difficult, but fortunately, according to Shaw, the British
fired so high that he could do more staring than firing
back at them. Apparently he entertained no very good
opinion of the British in Boston when he wrote:

From Boston they have bombs —
From Beacon Hill were shot —
Intending for to kill us,

But found out they could not.

— = oo - =

VERSES ABOUT WASHINGTON 283

After forcing the British to evacuate, the Yankees
marched into Boston only to find, as Shaw wrote, that
the Boston bakers pressed them “very short,” and they
soon grew faint from hunger because their “food was
naught.” Perhaps a hunger march along Beacon Hill
might have brought better results than now.

Shaw did not write much about Washington, but so
many of his contemporaries did, that there arose a large
body of broadside verse and local song dealing with
various events of his life. Much of this has undoubt-
edly perished, but a considerable amount can still be
found. Contemporary songs handed down tradition-
ally in families or among friends, are, however, very
rare and nowadays seldom discovered. Even our old-
est singers, who still remember and sing many an old
song, however fragmentary, can not recall any songs
about Washington, though they have often “hearn tell
o’ them.” The present writer has, nevertheless, been
so fortunate as to discover a few which, without the
slightest shadow of a doubt, have been orally trans-
mitted from generation to generation since the time
of the Revolution.

The first song, here printed for the first time, so far
as is known, unless, as is likely, it circulated as a broad-
side long since lost, is especially appropriate this year.
It is a contemporary, and possibly a purely local, ac-
count, perpetuated orally in Maine, of the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown. More or less changed and
shortened, probably, in its passage from singer to singer,
it may be only the torso of the original, still it has the
genuine stuff of the good old ballad. This shows itself
not only in a crude simplicity and ruggedness, an im-
personal style, and traces of incremental repetition, but

284 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

also in the characteristically rapid movement from point
to point in the story without waste of words, and a fa-
miliar, somewhat stereotyped phraseology suggestive of
those commonplaces of expression that occur so fre-
quently in old ballads. Furthermore, in the sharp despair
and pathos of a trapped and trembling foe as he looks
toward his hesitating army, this song seems to preserve
something of the spirit and the atmosphere that attach
to many of the ancient ballads. No modern war song,
however spirited, has quite the same tone —the same
compelling force and appeal. This early American
song, for all its uncouthness, is certainly akin to the
ballad type. As Cornwallis

He looked to the East, he saw Washington advance,

He looked to the West, he espied the flag of France,

Beside he saw bold Countergrass [Comte de Grasse ] come float-
ing down the bay,

we must feel that here indeed is a situation that may well
have inspired many a country poet to try his hand at de-
scribing it after the manner of those verses which were
so familiar to him in colonial days.

The first two lines of the song, considered by the
singer who sang it from memory as it was taught him
in childhood, as a fragment of the first stanza, were more
probably a refrain, just the sort that would carry a group
of old-time singers off their feet. Nor is it hard to im-
agine them, elated as they were by the news of so im-
portant a victory, singing, with all the force that they
could muster:

Hurrah for America, the news are very fine,
We’ve taken another prisoner worth thirty of Bugwine.

The whole song, as far as remembered by the singer,
follows:

VERSES ABOUT WASHINGTON 285

SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS
TO WASHINGTON*

Hurrah for America, the news are very fine,
We’ve taken another prisoner, worth thirty of Bugwine.

You’ ve all heard of Lord Cornwallis, that British champion,

Shed blood in every nation where’er he did pursue;

We marched all our marches with guns and with fire,

We marched all our marches to quench the British ire;

We marched them down to Yorktown and placed our guards
all round,

”T was there we set our cannon and fortified the ground.

He looked to the East, he saw Washington advance,

He looked to the West, he espied the flag of France;

Beside he saw bold Countergrass come floating down the bay,
This fellow he arose trembling but could not get away.

He cried to his army, “Where has your courage fled?

Has your flesh all turned to clay?

If so, we must surrender, and to Amerikay.”

Cornwallis he is taken, his race it is quite run,

He yielded himself a prisoner to our bold Washington;

He surrendered his whole army, nine thousand men in all,
And a large amount of shipping to Countergrass did fall.

Between such a song as the foregoing and that more fa-
miliar, amusing one called “The Dance,” so popular
among the soldiers in the Revolutionary War, the con-
trast is not only striking but noteworthy:

Cornwallis jigged with young Fayette
But suffered in his fame, sir,

1 As sung by Mr. MacLellan Gilchrist, of Thomaston, Maine.

286 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

and then took as partner,

Washington, Columbia’s son,
Whom easy nature taught, sir,

That grace, which can’t by fame be won,
Or Plutus’ gold be bought, sir.

One is reminded of the remark in Lowell’s Biglow
Papers, when, in speaking of the fun to be had on July
Fourth at the re-enactment of Cornwallis’s surrender,
called “The Cornwallis,” it is said, “i hait the Site of a
feller with a muskit as I du pizn. But their és fun to a
Cornwallis I aint agoin’ to deny it.”

After the death of Washington the poetic muse
worked busily in many places. One of the songs was
taken down from the singing of Mary Soper Carr, who
died in 1869, aged seventy-two years, by her grand-
daughter, Mrs. Susie Carr Young, of Brewer, Maine,
through whose untiring efforts for many years a very
large number of valuable old songs and ballads have
been saved. This song unquestionably dates back to 1799
and has been passed down orally in the Soper family
ever since. Through the kindness of Mrs. Young, it is
here reproduced for the first time.

WASHINGTON, MY SON

A LAMENTATION

1 How sad was the morning, how sable the sky,

Grief burned in my bosom and tears in my eye;

A sackcloth of sorrow hung over my son,

I lament the sad loss of my great Washington —
Washington, Washington, oh! what shall I do for my son?

VERSES ABOUT WASHINGTON

2 When Britain, proud Britain, invaded our land,
He then was first chosen the chief in command,
He beat the brave warriors all by his great skill, —
Now where is the man that his station can fill?
Oh, I fear, greatly fear, he lives not on this hemisphere.

3 *Twas on his firm shoulders the government lay;
Peace reign’d triumphant while he bore the sway:
A hero, a statesman, a sage all in one,
I lament the sad loss of my brave Washington —
Washington! Oh, my son! O, what shall I do for my son?

4 When Gabriel, proud Gabriel, let fly the bold dart,
Right through the center of his gallant heart,
A sackcloth of sorrow hung over my son,
I lament the sad loss of my great Washington —
Washington! Washington! Oh, what shall I do for my son?

Many of the eulogies of Washington that continued
to be written for some time after his death were not
songs but, like much eighteenth-century poetry, bom-
bastic attempts at the epic style. Such is one delivered
at the old First Meeting House in Topsham, Maine, by
the Reverend Jonathan Ellis in February, 1800. Over
five hundred lines long, it is, today, though tedious read-
ing, of real interest, and a few parts are certainly worth
quoting to show what the typical oration for Washington
was like. The original manuscript, a few lines from
which were printed in Griffith’s Poets of Maine, is in the
Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick, the Curator
of which very kindly granted permission to use whatever
parts of it might be of interest. The opening lines follow:

288

THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Ye who have often heard his praises sung,

In strains sublime, by many an abler tongue,
Now hear my death taught muse her grief impart,
A grief deep felt by every patriot heart.

At your request I tremblingly essay.

Columbia mourns; her Washington’s no more,
To bless with counsel or protect her shore.
Anguish unfeigned now prompts the willing sigh;
Now tears spontaneous tremble in the eye:

Ages to come shall know the pain we feel;

A thousand bards our cause of grief reveal:

Ages to come, while virtue has a friend,

Or all that gives renown on earth shall end,
Shall annual plaints and annual tribute bring,
Reherse his death, our country’s and his fair glory sing.
From the fair rising to the setting sun,

Talk o’er his worth, and mourn for Washington.
Ah, who his worth is able to express,

Whom heaven bestowed to save us and to bless.
Had I an hundred mouths, an hundred tongues,
Organs of steel, and adamantine lungs,
Impossible his deeds of worth to name,

Which place him peerless on the roll of fame.

The poem then goes on to tell of Washington’s part
in the French and Indian wars, in which

No danger aw’d him at no toil he griev’d;
His duty mov’d him and his zeal achiev’d.

And in these wars, also, as Washington discovered,

All arts were practised such as Frenchmen know
To dupe our sage and make the tribes our foe;
But this in vain, his penetrating ken,

Explor’d the wiles of savages and men,

With manly fortitude, on virtue’s base,

He stood erect, nor left the dangerous place
Till his high charge had faithfully fulfild.

VERSES ABOUT WASHINGTON 289

From this point on, the story of the early wars is con-
tinued, with glimpses of Washington’s life in retirement
at Mount Vernon, where

He taught men culture, op’d new paths to gain,
Reliev’d the laborer from useless pain.

All his wise projects to improvement tended,
Made art a handmaid or with labor blended.
To increase the quantity of human bliss,

And more diffuse the means of happiness.

He practised industry, this virtue taught,

By his example, full of wisdom fraught;

He honor’d all who acted well their part,
Embrac’d the virtuous with an ardent heart,
Wish’d every method might be well pursu’d,
Design’d for public or for private good,
Wish’d every virtue might the soul expand,
And long distinguish this, heaven’s favor’d land.

The picture of Washington at Mount Vernon, living
simply in full enjoyment of the pleasant rural scenes
described by the poet, and doing all in his power to in-
crease human welfare and happiness, is followed by
brief accounts of his marriage and social life up to the
time when, much to his sorrow, he was again called to
leave his home and lead an army against Great Britain.
One passage, only, from the account of the Revolution-
ary War, which evidently taxed to the utmost the powers
of the preacher-poet, will suffice as a fair example of his
ability to express the mind of the people on their great
leader:

Th’ historic pen shall faithfully declare,
His painful service thro’ our eight year war,

His martial prowess, theme of every tongue,
By other bard, shall be more fully sung,

290 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

How he the foe compel’d to take their flight,

In boisterous March from Boston’s pleasant site ;

How at New York his prudence...’d [legible] the war;
How fickle fortune frown’d upon his ear;

How Fabian like he led Britania’s host,

A fruitless circuit long the rugged coast;

How sickness in his camp spread dire dismay,

And death her numerous victims bore away.

Now war o’er Hudson’s stream extends her fare,
And wintry camps along the Delaware;

Here British cantonments diffusely spread,
Our force too weak to give them cause for dread.

At Trenton Hesse’s mercenary band
Kept Christmas holyday in freedom’s land,

Our Hero watch’d the favorable hour,

Cross’d the deep stream, tho wind and tempest roar,
Chang’d their rude glee to unsuspected pain,

And in subjection led their captured train.

Here turn’d the tide of war, now heaven smil’d,
And Britain found their high rais’d hope beguil’d.
The tidings flew, new energy they give,

And drooping spirits now again revive.

The following year with better omen came,
An army’s rais’d that first deserv’d the name:
Our Hero’s plans are into system bro’t,

And future battles now are better fought.

Witness the scenes which on this change ensu’d,
When our troops fought and Bourgoyne’s host subdued ;
Witness’d th’ event on Monmouth’s sultry plain,
Tho’ Lee prov’d base, our arms the victory gain;
Witness’d the Britons, and their rallyings cease,
Till Yorktown’s conquest turn’d their tho’ts to peace.
Less frequent hence the roar of war is heard,
Which wak’d our country’s care the nation’s dread,
Till the blest day when welcome peace her wand
Extended o’er Columbia’s happy land.

Now veteran soldiers leave the toil of arms,

To greet their friends and cultivate their farms,

VERSES ABOUT WASHINGTON 291

To enjoy as citizens those blessings dear;
Fatigue and danger bo’t, with many a scar:
Now round their firesides tell of battles won,
In raptures tell and boast of Washington.

There follows Washington’s prayer of gratitude to
heaven for help in time of war and victory, ending with
a supplication for Divine guidance in time of peace in
order that the land may prosper:

O Sire of men, prolong what thou hast given,
Long may our country feel the smiles of heaven,
May order, virtue, justice lead the way,

And on our Empire make a cloudless day:
Secure from factions and licentious arts,

May freemen act with dignity their parts;

Till time shall cease may independence won,
With blood and toil be safely handed down,

And following ages reap the boon we tast

Till conflagration spreads her general waste.

Before resigning his “mighty trust,” Washington

To every State his counsel he consign’d,
Warns them against the ills that party breeds,
Exhorts to candid patriotic deeds,

To give their constant and united aid,

To that weak bond in war’s confusion made,
Until convine’d ’twas proper to amend,

Or form one new, more equal to the end.

Then comes the poet’s account of the organization of the
United States, followed by the call of Washington to

lead in peace the nation whose freedom he had won in
war.

See him the savior of Columbia’s Land,

Now meet [sic] out justice with a righteous hand,
On foreign artifice indignant frown,

Just to all nations, faithful to_his own,

Best and unerring servant of the law,

The good man’s patron and the factions awe.

292 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

After this long eulogy of Washington, ending, as the
parson-poet would naturally have it, with pious reflec-
tions on his great worth and the duty of American citi-
zens to profit by his example and teach his precepts to
their children, there occurs, at the close, what may seem
(even in New England) an amusing, though wholly
unintentional anti-climax:

While we our deep, our heart felt loss deplore,
In sable grief which veils Columbia’s shore,
In midst of sorrow let our thanks arise,
To him who rules on earth, and rolls the skies,
Tis he each blessing takes, each blessing gives,
Tho’ Washington’s no more, our virtuous Adams lives.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE:
COLONIAL AGENT

MARGUERITE APPLETON

N June, 1715, the Rhode Island Assembly voted that

on account of the “necessity there is for this colony to
empower an agent in England to transact for this colony
all their concerns which they have beyond the seas. . .
Mr. Richard Partridge of London in Great Britain etc. °
be empowered to represent this colony before the King
and Council. ...”* Thus began the unusually long and
successful term of service of Partridge as the agent of
Rhode Island.

The colony could hardly have been more fortunate in
its choice. The son of William and Mary Partridge,
Richard was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on
December 9, -1681. A New Englander by birth and up-
bringing, he understood colonial ideals thoroughly; by
trade a London merchant, he was well acquainted, from
his long association with men of affairs, with English
traits of character and English habits of thought. Alert,
industrious, resourceful, and practical, he possessed pre-
cisely the right qualities for a colonial agent. His shrewd
judgment was so widely respected that he was employed

1 Rhode Island Colonial Records, 1v, 187.

293

294 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

also at various times as agent for other colonies: for New
York, in 1731; for the Jersies, in 1733; for Massachu-
setts, in 1737; for Pennsylvania, in 1740; and for Con-
necticut from 1750-1759."

Of his youth we know almost nothing, but it is safe to
assume that he was brought up in comfortable circum-
stances. His father’s business dealings with merchants in
England, his friendship with the influential Sir Henry
Ashurst, his commission for Lieutenant-Governor from
1696-1703, the lavish entertainment he gave Joseph
Dudley on a visit to Portsmouth, his ability to set up his
son, Richard, as a London merchant, and the marriage
of his daughter to Jonathan Belcher —all these facts are
evidence of a background of affluence and a certain dis-
tinction.

When Richard Partridge received the appointment to
represent Rhode Island, for which he was to have the
modest salary of £40 a year, the colonial agency had be-
come a settled institution. Although never an official
member of the imperial machinery, by the beginning of
the eighteenth century the agent was an indispensable
link in the administration of the colonies across the sea.
His tasks centered around the fundamental function of
protecting the iriterests of the colony in the mother coun-
try. To this end he kept close watch on the policies of
the Home Government, and also on the activities of
other colonial representatives. Not only did he prevent,

2 This essay is based almost exclusively on Partridge’s services as the
colonial agent of Rhode Island. The reasons for this emphasis are two:
in the first place, the sources for Rhode Island are copious; in the second
place, as the text suggests, Partridge’s work for other colonies involved

him in no kind of problem he had not already tried to solve in behalf of
Rhode Island.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 295

if possible, oppressive legislation, but averted so far as in
his power any aggression on the part of the colony’s
neighbors. Acting as the intermediary between two wide-
ly separated members of the empire, in the performance
of difficult and at times delicate tasks, he had often to be
the interpreter of two sharply-contrasting philosophies
of life, that of the Old World and the New. Almost his
greatest asset consisted of a circle of acquaintances, and
his best “hunting ground” lay in the personal conference.

For the first five years of his Rhode Island agency,
Partridge was engaged in matters of minor significance,
but in 1720 there occurred an important responsibility:
the colony’s appeal to the Crown on the question of the
Connecticut boundary. This controversy, originating in
the disputed reading of the charters, had been more or
less definitely settled in 1703. Nevertheless, no attempt
had been made to run the line until 1719, when argu-
ments between the surveyors re-opened the old quarrel.
After a little correspondence with the Connecticut As-
sembly, Rhode Island’s patience gave out, and she ap-
pealed to the Home Government. Partridge prepared
his first important assignment with care. He drew up a
petition which rehearsed in detail the history of the case
—the decision of the Royal Commission in 1685, the
letter from Charles II confirming this, the fruitless ne-
gotiations between the two colonies over a protracted
period of time, and the recent agreement of 1703. The
petition was accompanied by a map of the territory in
question which indicated with red and green lines the
claims of the respective communities, and with marginal
notes, the grievances of Rhode Island. He further bul-

296

Island,

Rhode

case in
clearly

warked his plea by “several affidavits from ancient in-
habitants.”* A second memorial praying for relief was
made ready, and a Rhode Islander who happened to be
in England was secured as witness.

The decision of the Board of Trade was indeed a novel
one. While favoring, in general, the claims of Rhode

the dispute be cut in the curious fashion of persuading
both colonies to give up their charters and allow them-
selves to be annexed to New Hampshire! Naturally this
was rejected by Rhode Island, and Partridge was in-
structed to prevent if possible the calamity of the loss
of the charter. The matter was finally settled, in 1726,
with the recommendation that the boundary for which

(and, incidentally, Partridge’s “red line” on the map)
should be accepted.

Less than a decade later the Assembly asked the agent
to seek an adjustment of the eastern boundary, which,
on account of the extravagant claims of Massachusetts,
had become the source of much trouble.* Little thinking
that this controversy was to be prolonged for twelve
years, Partridge drew up the first formal petition on the

trated by the fact that Senex, the best map engraver of
the day, was commissioned to make it, and he retained
as counsel, Ferdinando J. Paris, one of the ablest lawyers

Historical Manuscripts from H. B. M. State Paper Office relating to
Rhode Island, 1618-1735, 1X, 587. Transcript in the John Carter Brown
Library, Providence, Rhode Island.

* Massachusetts laid claim to all the land on the east side of Narra-
gansett Bay on the ground that it had been within the Plymouth Grant
when that colony was merged with Massachusetts.

THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

the Board suggested that the Gordian knot of

Island had been fighting for over fifty years

1736. As before, he enclosed a map to show
the area involved. His attention to detail is illus-

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 297

in London, whom Thomas Hutchinson characterized as,
“one of the first rate and who had a peculiar talent at
slurring the characters of his antagonists.”°

In 1738, the Board of Trade recommended that a
boundary commission be appointed to hear the case in
America. This was followed by the usual Order in Coun-
cil, and Partridge was so eager to report it without loss
of time to the Rhode Island Assembly that he obtained a
“pri.” [ private? ] copy at the cost of 10s. 6d.°

As might be expected, the decision of the commission
divided the territory between Rhode Island and Massa-
chusetts, but neither colony was satisfied, and the matter
was again laid before the Crown. Rhode Island voted
£200 for the appeal and wrote to Partridge to start ne-
gotiations at once; her neighbor, appropriating £600,
promptly chose two agents to appeal from the decision,
“every part of which is grievous and injurious.”

Partridge and his attorney, Mr. Paris, patiently
tackled the subject once more. A new petition was pre-
pared which explained the facts and set forth Rhode Is-
land’s claims. Both agent and advocate were eager to
forestall the Massachusetts petition, and both were
pleased, after almost daily attendance at the Council
Office, to discover that theirs had been made first.” At
this time Partridge found himself in a peculiar position.
While he was engaged in the Massachusetts dispute with
Rhode Island, he was called in by Massachusetts to assist
in her controversy with New Hampshire. Thus he saw

® Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts Bay (Boston, 1764),
Il, 384.

® Rhode Island State Archives: Partridge Accounts.
7 Ibid.

298 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

that he was fighting for Massachusetts over her northern
boundary while he was fighting against her over her
southern boundary. Apparently, however, he could with-
out inconvenience work both with and against Francis
Wilkes, the Massachusetts agent, and he hastened to
assure the Rhode Island Assembly that

. ». no consideration whatever shall byass me to forfeit the trust
reposed in me, but my zeal for the interest and good of the col-
ony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations shall be the
same (without the least variation) as it has all along hitherto
been.*

Action on the Rhode Island-Massachusetts appeal was
delayed by the Board of Trade for two years — years
during which Partridge and Paris spent infinite labor and
care on the matter. There had been engaged a second
lawyer, Counsellor Murray, who worked almost as hard
as his chief. Mr. Paris made innumerable trips to the
Council Office to keep track of the activities of his op-
ponents. He wrote his briefs with the closest attention
to details; he conferred frequently with Partridge; he
read and re-read the papers filed by the Massachusetts
agents, not hesitating to add remarks and marginal cor-
rections in red ink to statements “shamefully false and
corrupt”; he ordered more maps for distribution among
the members of the committee in charge; and finally, to
leave no stone unturned, he made twenty-three per-
sonal calls on those gentlemen to answer questions and
to press Rhode Island’s arguments.*

* Partridge to the Secretary of the colony of Rhode Island: G. S.
Kimball, Correspondence of Colonial Governors (Boston, 1902), 1, 69-

® Rhode Island Archives: Partridge Accounts.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 299

When the hearings began, in 1744, the solicitor, ably
seconded by Partridge, put up a bold fight. In his ac-
counts for this year Partridge included “20 Guineas as
a gratuity for service,” and “four presents of wine to a
gentleman for service.”** Is it too much to assume that
he did not always confine himself to strictly legal advice?

The Board of Trade confirmed the decision of the
boundary commission of 1742, but Massachusetts re-
fused to accept defeat, and demanded still another hear-
ing of the whole case. Partridge, greatly alarmed — for
he not only appreciated the extra expense involved, but
feared that Rhode Island might now lose that strip of
land once granted — filed a counter petition, first taking
the precaution of getting private copies of the last two
petitions of his antagonist." His argument that an appeal
from an Order in Council would start a tedious and dan-
gerous precedent seems to have won the day, for the
request of Massachusetts was denied. In 1746, the Order
in Council was issued to run the line as previously rec-
ommended. Through his indefatigable work Rhode Is-
land gained control of land three miles wide on her
eastern bank, and thus to this day Narragansett Bay with
its excellent harbor lies entirely within the state’s borders.

Meanwhile Partridge had been playing a prominent
part in the bitter struggle over the Molasses Act. The
result of years of agitation was a bill designed to produce
a monopoly in sugar and molasses for the benefit of the
West Indian merchants. When this bill was first intro-
duced into Parliament, in 1731, it produced a storm of
indignation from the northern colonies. At once three

1° Rhode Island Archives: Partridge Accounts.
11 [bid.

300 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

petitions, of which one was the work of Partridge, who
was acting as the agent of New York and New Jersey in
the emergency, were sent to the Board of Trade. In spite
of the opposition of the northern colonies, the bill passed
the House of Commons and was sent to the House of
Lords. The situation now took on the character of a
crisis, for the West Indians were well organized, and the
proposed legislation seriously menaced the colonial trade
in molasses, rum, and sugar. The powerful West Indian
lobby was paralleled by the banding together of the
agents of the continental colonies, and both sides worked
frantically to influence the votes of Parliament.
Partridge had a “pretty deal of discourse” with “our
hearty friend, Oglethorpe,” and codperated with his
colleagues by contributing to the mass of pamphlets
that flooded Parliament. He helped to print and dis-
tribute a document by a Captain Hall—thought val-
uable because of its impartial reasoning. He secured the
brain and pen of another pamphleteer, one Sim Clemens,
who produced A Short Answer to an Elaborate Pam-
phlet Entitled T he Importance of the Sugar Plantations,
etc. Composed of Mamy Words, Much Malice, Very
Little Argument and an Abundance of False Reasoning.
In addition he had printed for distribution eight hun-
dred “Cases.” These “Cases,” generally broadsides or
single sheets, and filled with neatly-phrased arguments,
were admirably suited for political purposes. Whether
Partridge was himself the author of any of this prop-
aganda it is impossible to tell, but undoubtedly he con-
tributed his share of data and reasoning. As a New Eng-
lander he could not fail to understand how deeply the
bill would undermine the prosperity of Rhode Island.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 301

Though the bill failed of passage in 1731, Partridge
wrote to the Rhode Island Assembly, “I am informed
the Barbadians will have another push for it.”** He was
right, and again it was necessary for the continental
agents to bend all their efforts to defeat the bill. Partridge
helped frame a document, sent to the Board of Trade,
which was the combined work of the representatives of
five northern colonies.” This was followed by a pam-
phlet, written, perhaps, by the indefatigable agent,
called The Case of the Northern Colonies.“ In it there
was raised the favorite argument that if trade with the
foreign West Indies were prohibited, the New England
merchants, and particularly the Rhode Islanders, who
were the great molasses carriers of the American colonies,
faced financial ruin, because the sugar islands could
neither supply sufficient produce to meet the demand,
nor furnish a large enough market for North American
goods. While the bill was under discussion, the Rhode
Island agent was given the opportunity of appearing in
person before the House of Lords. Of his work that day
he said:

I will not say my appearing as counsel was the occasion of our
success, but this I believe none will deny, but that the Lords
gave as due attention to it as to any of the counsel that went
before, and that after that day would hear no more of it, con-
cluding that it was a bill not fit to pass.’

12 Partridge to Governor Jencks: Kimball, Correspondence of Colonial
Governors, 1, 20.

13 It was entitled, Some Short Observations on, and Reasons in Answer
to the Three Representations from the Assembly of Barbadoes, and the
Islands of Antigua, and St. Christopher, for and on behalf of Several of
the Northern Colonies, vizt. The Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York.

14 A copy of a pamphlet with this same title is in the John Carter
Brown Library. It seems highly probable that this one is the work of
Partridge, though it is impossible to identify it positively.

15 Partridge to Deputy-Governor Wanton: Kimball, Correspondence
of Colonial Governors, 1, 26.

302 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

In spite of a second failure, in 1733 the sugar planters
brought the bill forward a third time. Once more the
agents combined to fight it, but at last their opposition
was overcome, and the Molasses Act, levying duties on
foreign rum, sugar, and molasses, became a law.

Part of Partridge’s duties requiring more than the
usual amount of drudgery were those which had to do
with the agency in war time. As the eighteenth century
was one of almost incessant warfare for England, it fell
to the lot of the agent to carry on negotiations for Rhode
Island for the War of the Austrian Succession, and one
year of the Seven Years’ War. In both, the Home Gov-
ernment employed the policy of requisition and reim-
bursement. It promised to provide arms, ammunition,
tents, and clothing, and to pay the soldiers while the
colonies were to furnish men, food, and transportation.
The system, clumsy even at best, involved an endless
round of petitions, conferences, and irritating details.

When, in 1746, Partridge received the estimates for
the expenses of the various campaigns of the War of the
Austrian Succession, he set to work without delay to se-
cure payment. Difficulties arose, however, almost at
once. Though possessing satisfactory credentials author-
izing him to collect the money — he alone, of all the co-
lonial representatives, had been forehanded enough to
get them from the Rhode Island Assembly —he failed
at first to present the proper vouchers at the hearings.
When he finally received these, another obstacle in the
shape of the question about paper currency suddenly ap-
peared. This necessitated a second series of hearings,
during which the matter of the war debts was thrust
aside while Partridge, London merchants, and even the

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 303

Attorney-General thrashed out the whole problem be-
fore the Board of Trade. The colony’s account for the
expedition against Louisburg was £36,096 colonial cur-
rency, and for the campaigns of the two following years
£10,144 sterling, but although Partridge presented more
than one memorial, he was unable to get the full amount.
Even when the Board of Trade and the agent agreed on
a compromise sum, his work was not finished, for the
method of payment required more discussion and inter-
viewing. Not until 1750 were the Louisburg claims
settled.

Hardly had these tedious transactions been concluded
when the Seven Years’ War broke out, bringing with it
the same question of reimbursement. Again England
promised to pay her colonies for their expenses, and
again the matter resolved itself into a muddle of co-
lonial claims and counter claims on the part of the Home
Government. Vouchers for army supplies, muster rolls
of regiments, receipts for officers’ pay, warrants for cash
advanced — and all these in varying amounts of colonial
currency — produced a terrifying problem in mathe-
matics. The affair developed into a series of wearisome
contests in which the long-suffering agents endeavored
to keep the government from pruning the colonial fig-
ures to a minimum. Every item of expense was scanned
by the parsimonious eye of some committee member,
and Partridge discovered to his chagrin that the Board
of Trade sharply criticized Rhode Island for asking pay-
ment for such luxuries as coffee, sugar, ham, soap, knives
and forks, and the like.”* In spite of all his efforts he
could not collect for such items.

16 Partridge to the Rhode Island Assembly: Kimball, Correspondence
of Colonial Governors, 11, 314.

304 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

In 1750, Partridge accepted the agency for Connecti-
cut, which he held until his death, nine years later. By
this time he had probably acquired a wide reputation in
his office. For thirty-five years he had served Rhode Is-
land, acting also, in the meantime, for the Jerseys, New
York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. He had been
instrumental in settling both the Rhode Island boundary
controversies, and had taken an active part in the strug-
gle over the Molasses Act, all the time performing the
thousand and one other tasks connected with the po-
sition.

The negotiations which he carried on as Connecticut
representative were, for the most part, much the same as
those in which he had often been engaged. There was
the dispute between Connecticut and Massachusetts over
their dividing line; the quarrel between the colony and
John Mason over the land claims of the Mohegan In-
dians, which dragged on until 1771, the Saint Joseph
and Helena aftair, which likewise was not settled until
after Partridge’s time — not to speak of a revival of agi-
tation of the West Indians over the Molasses Act. This
law, which for twenty years had been practically a dead
letter as far as the northern colonies were concerned, was
now about to expire, and the sugar planters once more
began loudly to advertise their grievances. The whole
situation was argued out in a series of hearings, Partridge
using all his energies in behalf of the New England
colonies. He kept a keen eye on the trend of the discus-
sions, but suspecting that nothing would come of them,
reported to Governor Wolcott that “when the contest
had continued about a month, the Board have given the
West Indian gentlemen the goby. . . .””

17 The Wolcott Papers, 43: Partridge to Governor Wolcott.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 305

While at times Partridge was compelled to concentrate
all his efforts on special issues, almost every month
brought its quota of miscellaneous duties. One of these
was acting as a clearing house of information for both
the Home Government and the colony. He rarely failed
to piece out the scanty knowledge of the Rhode Island
Assembly with all sorts of data. News of current events
both foreign and domestic, copies of Resolutions and
votes of Parliament, copies of speeches, or public “prints”
were regularly enclosed in his packet of letters, and once
he sent a copy of a speech of the Speaker of the House
of Commons to the Governor of Rhode Island simply
because “it is what we can scarce ever or rarely obtain,
it being something curious I send it thee thinking it
might be acceptable.””* In 1744, his keen nose for prop-
aganda led him to dispatch to the colony

. a small book wrote by Jer. Dummer in defense of the
charter governments which I thought might be very proper to
have reprinted with the amendments I have made to it on pages
18 and 27 ... in order to disperse amongst members of Parlia-
ment at the next sessions which might be of service.’®

Sometimes he resorted to subterranean methods to ob-
tain the information he desired. Presents of wine secured
“services” from certain individuals, and dinner invita-
tions to the coffee houses made valuable friends of others.
A single item in his accounts for 1729 of £1 3s. 4d. fora
“treat to a person who was serviceable in giving infor-
mation in Parliamentary affairs” suggests to the imagi-

18 Partridge to Governor Wanton: Kimball, Correspondence of Co-
lonial Governors, 1, 94.

19 Partridge to Governor Greene: [bid., 1, 256.

306 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

nation the alert agent entertaining some acquaintance
whose tongue he was loosening with conviviality.”

In 1740, his success at getting inside knowledge acted
as a boomerang. He was then the temporary agent for
the Assembly of Pennsylvania when that body became
involved in a quarrel with Governor Thomas over grants
for the War of the Austrian Succession. Thomas wrote
to the Board of Trade complaining about the Quakers
and their penuriousness. Somehow or other Partridge
got hold of a copy of the letter and dispatched it to the
Assembly, which aroused the anger of that body to an
even greater pitch. The Board of Trade, discovering
Partridge’s conduct in the affair, demanded an explana-
tion and, when he refused, prohibited him from trans-
acting any business before it until he had apologized and
made appropriate restitution to Governor Thomas.”

Much of the time he was merely on guard. Like
Cavour, who went to “sniff the air” at the Congress of
Paris in 1856, Partridge had a keen nose for any benefit
to the colonies. Although by 1715 the greatest danger of
parliamentary abrogation of the charters had passed,
the privileged, and even the proprietary colonies never
felt quite safe. When a bill for the better regulation of
charter colonies was introduced into Parliament, Rhode
Island was quick to take alarm, although the measure
had for its primary object the aiding of South Carolina
which was facing a war with the Yamasee Indians. In
1721, when the status of charter colonies was once more
called in question, the colony implored her agent to pro-
tect her interests. This particular danger disappeared,

2° Rhode Island Archives: Partridge Accounts.

210. M. Dickerson, American Colonial Government (Cleveland,
1912), 71, note,

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 307

but Rhode Island was in constant fear that in some way
her privileges might be restricted, or the charter itself
annulled. Partridge learned to maintain an attitude of
perpetual vigilance.

So steeped was he in the belief in the sanctity of the
Rhode Island charter that in 1742, he precipitated an
apparently needless quarrel between the Assembly and
Leonard Lockman, the recently-appointed deputy-judge
of the Court of Admiralty of New England. Lockman’s
appointment as naval officer by the Crown rather than
by the Governor of Rhode Island seemed to the agent
only another instance of infringement of charter rights.
Therefore he petitioned against it and wrote to the As-
sembly his views on the matter. The exact powers of the
colonial governor in maritime affairs had long been a
troublesome question, and the Rhode Islanders had
never ceased to insist that the choice of naval officers lay
with the governor. Partridge’s unwelcome news so in-
censed the Assembly that a committee was promptly
chosen to inspect Lockman’s patent. It is not surprising
that its report upheld the governor’s privilege by de-
claring that it was supported by Acts of Parliament,”
and that at the same time £550 was voted “to be applied
and expended in the just defense of the charter privi-
leges of the colonies.”

Meanwhile the new deputy-judge performed his du-
ties, to which the colony could not take exception. The
situation demanded more tact than Lockman seems to
have possessed, and his term of active service was marked
by considerable friction and mutual dislike. Though he
returned to England in 1742-3, he continued there the

22 Rhode Island Colonial Records, Vv, 71.
28 Ibid., 97.

308 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

battle over his appointment. In 1745, Partridge reported
that “the matter of Lockman lyes entirely dormant,”
but four years later the Assembly was still indulging in
angry correspondence with him on the subject. Un-
doubtedly, the real cause of opposition to Lockman lay
in an inherent antagonism to the royal Court of Ad-
miralty —a state of mind that was aggravated by Part-
ridge’s misguided zeal in behalf of the charter.

As may be supposed, Partridge’s letters were almost
always concerned with the business of the agency, yet
not infrequently we catch glimpses of the man himself.
His shrewdness, his diligence, his gentle pleas for money
(which the colony chronically found hard to supply), his
sense of humor, and ever and always his deep knowl-
edge of the times and of the ins-and-outs of colonial ad-
ministration crop out again and again. While represent-
ing Rhode Island in the Massachusetts boundary con-
troversy he once slyly remarked:

I understand that the Massachusetts agent has got some ac-
count of violence used or committed by Rhode Island people on
some of theirs, now if you can have any proofs of the like usage
on their side, please let me have them.”

In 1740, he declared, that the “smart resolutions” in the
House of Commons about the perennial problem of
paper currency were introduced “more with a view to
puzzle and perplex the Ministry and spirit up the plan-
tations . . . than anything else.”* The provisions of the
Molasses Act caused him to advance the argument which
was to be vigorously urged thirty years later. He wrote
to Governor Wanton:

*4 Partridge to the Rhode Island Assembly: Kimball, Correspondence
of Colonial Governors, 1, 62.

25 Tbid., 153.

RICHARD PARTRIDGE 309

It [the tax on foreign molasses, rum, and sugar] may be drawn
into a precedent for the future . . . that a British Parliament
imposes a duty on the King’s subjects abroad who have no rep-
resentatives in the state here, they may from 4d. advance to
20d. to £100—on different things, and so on ad infinitum
which is an infringement on liberty and property, as I appre-
hend a violation of the right of the subject.”

While carrying on, in 1759, the negotiations over the
debt of the Seven Years’ War, Partridge was taken sick.
A letter of March first mentions his illness, and speaks
in unusually dubious terms of his recovery; it is obvious
that he was not only ill but old. Two weeks later his
friend, Joseph Sherwood, informed the Rhode Island
Assembly of their agent’s death —an event wholly un-
expected by his friends. Although he had been famous
and successful in his office, he died insolvent.

Nothing throws more effective light on the manage-
ment of the empire than the forty-four years’ service of
Richard Partridge. In and out of the colonial offices he
passed, encountering the armies of clerks, minor officials,
and members of committees, attending hearings in the
hope of furthering the interests of the colonies, keeping
a watchful eye on bills and debates in Parliament, writing
voluminous letters to his lawyers, and to his American
correspondents. Faithful, resourceful, friendly, his was
the hand that did much to facilitate the colonial admin-
istration of the first British Empire.

26 Partridge to Governor Wanton: Kimball, Correspondence of Co-
lonial Governors, 1, 153.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS

A NEW ENGLAND BOY IN THE CIVIL WAR

EDITED BY CAROLINE B. SHERMAN

E who have lived in and near Virginia all our lives, who

love Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley, and in whom
the name of Lee arouses a feeling of reverence, would hesitate
to revive painful memories of the conflict that centered in the
Old Dominion, did it not seem probable that this first-hand
account is typical of the story of many another New England
youth whose children and grandchildren are now among the
readers of the New EnGLanp QuarTERLY.

Henry Elijah Alvord, who wrote these letters, was born in
Greenfield, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1844. He entered
Norwich University in 1860 and, near the close of his junior
year, joined the students’ company of cavalry (Seventh Squad-
ron, Rhode Island Cavalry). When the company was mustered
out soon after the battle of Antietam, he returned to the uni-
versity for graduation; and then, though but eighteen years of
age, re-entered the army as second lieutenant in the Second
Regiment of Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers. The young
soldier served actively in and near Virginia throughout the war.
Promoted from time to time, he held the rank of major at the
close of the war.

It adds to the interest of this series of letters that they cover
the entire period of the conflict — from the time when the news
of the fall of Fort Sumter infected the cadets at Norwich Uni-
versity with the war fever, to the closing incident at Appo-
mattox, with the letter writer, barely twenty-one years old,
watching the house in which the opposing chieftains were ar-
ranging the terms of surrender. Written only for the eyes of
his family, the letters present a vivid, frank, and informal pic-

310

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 311

ture of life in camp and in the field. In them may be glimpsed
both the human and inhuman aspects of modern warfare. The
passage describing the mouldering battle ground of Bull Run
anticipates, in a sense, the realism of Stephen Crane.

A few years after the close of the letters Major Alvord mar-
ried Martha Swink, of Virginia, whom he had met during his
campaigns. For her he acquired the large estate of Spring Hill
Farm in Fairfax County, which had been the homestead of her
family for more than a century. Throughout his life he con-
sidered Spring Hill his permanent home, although he was buried
at Greenfield, Massachusetts. After serving in the regular army
in the West, chiefly on staff duty under Generals Hancock and
Sheridan, he was stationed at the Massachusetts Agricultural
College as military instructor, the first army officer detailed to
an agricultural college for this service.

All of his later years were devoted entirely to the pursuits of
peace. The old hope of replacing swords with plowshares seems
literally to have been his, for his interests and studies turned so
definitely to agriculture that we find him in charge of that
phase of early Chautauqua work known as the “school of farm-
ing” — probably the first agricultural correspondence course
undertaken in this country. In 1880, he became professor of
agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College and later
was elected director of the newly-established agricultural ex-
periment station at Cornell University. Declining this position
in order to accept the presidency of the Maryland Agricultural
College, he organized that college and established the state
agricultural experiment station. Later, besides serving other
states in similar capacities, he was active in securing federal
legislation relating to agriculture and in the formation and
leadership of national agricultural associations. His last ten
years were spent in the United States Department of Agricul-
ture. He travelled extensively in rural Europe and held honors
in several foreign agricultural societies. He was known every-
where as one who had worked untiringly in the North and in
the South, in this country and abroad, in the interests of a stable
science of the land. He died in St. Louis on October 4, 1904.

312 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

NorwicuH Mixrrary UNIversiry,
APRIL 22, 1861

The past week has almost been a furlough to us all. The war
fever rages here to such an extent that study has been at a great
discount. On Sunday the telegrams announced the fact of Sum-
ter’s surrender. We were all excited, could recite none Monday
— must see the Boston Journal. The telegrams were corrobo-
rated and a proclamation, a fine one, from President Lincoln.
Then the question was, who will go? It was answered Wednes-
day, and Thursday the cadets turned out en masse and escorted
our tutor Shattuck to the Junction where we bid him farewell
with tears in our eyes and our fists doubled up. As he went out
of sight cheer upon cheer rose from us. He goes as staff officer
to the gallant sixth regiment M. V. M., which was attacked the
other day at Baltimore.

On the nineteenth day of April 1775 the first blood of the
Revolution was shed by the sons of the old Bay State at Lex-
ington. On the nineteenth day of April 1861 the first blood of
the great southern insurrection was shed by the sons of Massa-
chusetts at Baltimore and those killed at the latter place were
from the vicinity of Lexington. The whole sixth regiment
comes from that region. Massachusetts is always ahead!

In Samuel W. Shattuck, our tutor from Groton Massachu-
setts we lost an excellent instructor and a better drill master
than General Sackman. He did more for the good of the insti-
tution during the two terms of his tutorship than the rest of the
faculty have done in the last half dozen years.

Friday was pretty quiet but yesterday morning we raised a
flag upon our staff amid cheers and a salute of 13 guns. Ewart
of Ohio then delivered an oration. We finished this demon-
stration at half past twelve noon. At two we assembled and re-
ceived an invitation from the Dartmouth students to serve as
escort for them in a similar demonstration on their common at
3 P.M. They got cartridges and horses for us and we detailed
a gun squad and carried over one of our six-pounders. The rest

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 313

of the cadets went as infantry and did escort duty. They raised
two banners and we fired 34 guns for them. I had the responsible
position on the gun it being number three — tender of the vent.

The infantry meanwhile saluted by presenting arms. Then
a procession was formed and marched to the chapel of Old
Dartmouth where we had the best seats given us and listened
to speeches from two seniors. Then our Captain C. B. Stoughton
was called on and spoke. Then the students en masse escorted
us clear home, called on General Sackman and he spoke. Then
miscellaneous speaking, cheering, etc. Then adjourned. This
is the first time the Dartmouths and the Cadets have ever
united in a demonstration. They have never before been on so
friendly terms as now.

Rumors today say Washington is lost. If that is so we must
have a bloody war and I must have my share of it before it is
over!

Norwicu University, JUNE 10, 1862
[To his father.]

This is a letter on truly very important business.

An aid to General Sprague of Rhode Island (Colonel
Gardner) is here. He desires to form a company of cavalry
for three months service. The Junior classes of Dartmouth
College and Norwich University are determined to form the
company. Both faculties say that it shall not interfere with
our courses at college, and three months will not much in-
terfere. ‘The purpose is to be at Washington 3 months to
relieve a regiment of well drilled troops to go into active
service.

Three months will no more than drill us well. We are to
learn Cavalry Tactics and that is about all besides what we see,
no real service surely, it’s impossible. We have had this matter
to think of for a few days and it seems now highly probable that
we shall go. That is, enough from the two junior classes will go
to break those classes up completely; those, with numerous

314 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

freshmen, will form the Company — all students known well to
each other, the officers all appointed by Sprague. We are all
privates together. The enlisting papers are at Providence, R. I.
There we are to go, if at all, and be mustered in.

Now there are fifteen in my class—eleven will pretty
surely go, including myself . . . I have thought of it well, am
not hasty, but wish to go with them. There is no time to
waste thinking of it. We should all go tomorrow night. Thirty
or forty will go then sure, the rest are to follow on Thursday
or Friday P.M. at latest. It will be a great thing for us — cav-
alry tactics and camp life at Washington. I can stand it three
months sure. Will you give your consent? I am sorry you
are not where you can see all the family to consult but there
is not time for that—what say you? If you are willing
please to telegraph so in so many words immediately — wait
for nothing. If you will mot consent write to me at once
that I may get the letter Thursday. Decide at once yes or no.

It is not a very grave matter. I will lose nothing here, it lasts
till Sept. 10 or 12 only. Telegraph “yes” or write “no,”

to your affectionate son,

Henry E. Atvorp.
WEDNESDAY MORNING.

I have “slept on it” another night — so have we all. Still we

say go.

Bounp FoR WASHINGTON.

June 19, 1862.

. . - At last I am off for the National Capitol [sic] via Prov-
idence, R. I. We have a full company of seventy-nine men,
students, cadets and a few friends of each. It is a fine set
of fellows. I never expect to regret going.

I was very glad to find that most all of you favored my
going....

We go as private soldiers in the hardest branch of the service.
We doubt not we shall have a very “tough” time and expect to

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 315

get heartily sick of it. I suspect there is but little real patriotism
in the movement. Most go for novelty, for the sake of going.
Still we hope to be useful.

Though we know nothing about it, we suppose we shall see
no active service in the field, dont anticipate being under fire,
but in and around Washington most or all of the time.

Think of me during the next three months not as at war, but
as on a pleasant journey on horseback, a vacation of three months
spent at Washington, and working my way along... .

Camp SIEGEL, WINCHESTER, VA.
Jury 31, 1862.

You will see by this date that we have again changed our
quarters. If when in the Army Reserve Corps of the Potomac
we were not in active service, we certainly are now. . . . Satur-
day we were transferred from General Sturgis’ Reserve Corps
te General White’s Brigade. White, however, was not assigned
a command till Saturday night. So Saturday night we were
ordered to pack up ready to march at any time. Sunday morning
the Major went to Washington and returned at noon with
sealed marching orders. At 2 P. M. we struck tents, left Camp
Eddy and marched through Alexandria, back to Washington.
We arrived there and dismounted in a cattle pen at 6 P.M.
At eleven at night we had loaded all our baggage, horses and
selves in a long line of freight cars on the Baltimore road.
There were twenty-five in my car, we were on hay lying “spoon
fashion” across an old cattle car. ... At two P. M. we stopped
at Sandy Hook and through some unknown cause we could not
proceed, so six of us went off on a foraging expedition, and were
gone till dark. We then went to sleep in our freight car and
woke up Tuesday morning on the railroad bridge crossing the
Potomac at Harper’s Ferry. We were there long enough to see
all the public buildings, where John Brown lived, and was
taken prisoner, where the Union troops burned the Arsenal and
private buildings and destroyed the bridge. The whole village
is a mass of ruins. It was shelled by the Federals from across

316 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
the Potomac when Banks retreated. From H. F. we passed
down the lovely valley of the Shenandoah, through Charles-
town, Va. (where J. B. was hung) to Winchester. . . .

We are camped on a hill commanding the town and the
General has orders to shell the town whenever he chooses. Sev-
eral houses have been burned since we have been here, by Gen-
eral White’s order. . . .

Bush-whackers are very plentiful around here and pickets
are stationed in all directions from camp, out about four miles
from us and about one mile apart. We are in a Brigade camp,
4 Regiments of Infantry, a Light Battery and our Squadron.
The infantry are building a fort. We are on picket duty or off
scouting, or searching houses, etc. . . .

Wednesday was spent in this scouting; we had almost reached
Front Royal when we met a party of Illinois Cavalry return-
ing, having in charge the very noted female spy and mail-
carrier, Belle Boyd. They got her at Front Royal and found
on her person thirty or forty letters, a six-shooter, etc. She is
the most noted rebel spy out. They have been hunting for her
for a month. You have probably often seen her name in the
papers. ...

After we were all in line yesterday morning the Major with
twenty men (including my classmate Sergeant Major Bush
and myself) for his bodyguard, galloped out to the outer-picket
and found quite a brisk skirmish, on a small scale, going on.
[ Gives details. |

The Shenandoah Valley is beautiful and healthful. On the
East is the Blue Ridge, to the West the Alleghanies. Our camp
is on the homestead farm of the late Senator Mason of Virginia
of M. C. Slidell notoriety.

Last night we were ordered to saddle at ten P. M. — took
turns all night holding the horses at the tent door and we slept
on our arms ready to mount in I minute. ...

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 317

Norwicu Universiry, VERMONT,
NoveMBER 5, 1862.
[To his father.]

Monday’s Boston Journal, Page 2, Column 2, under the
heading “The Texas Expedition” says “We understand Gov-
ernor Andrew has with leave of War Department assigned to
General Banks’ Expedition the 41st Regiment being the only
3 yrs. regiment remaining in the State. 3 batteries, 3 yrs.
vol. artillery and 8 regiments nine months men.

It is also the Governor’s purpose to begin forthwith to raise
a regiment of Cavalry for 3 years service, intended for the same
expedition. .. .

You know as well as I do the character of Banks’ Expedi-
tion. That it is eminently a New England expedition if not
almost exclusively from Massachusetts. Its importance is ac-
knowledged by all. It is directly under the direction of Gov- .
ernor A. and General B., the former furnishing the men
therefor, mostly Massachusetts regiments, the latter command-
ing the expedition.

This new Cavalry regiment will probably be the last cavalry
raised in Massachusetts and it is to be with Banks in Texas,
the place of all places for cavalry to enjoy themselves, have
health, and a wide and varied field of action.

Here then is a rare chance if it can be got. The question at
once arises— is it not best for me to go with this 2nd Massa-
chusetts Cavalry if I can get a place. The Adjutant’s berth is
of course the desirable place; if I can get that had I not better
take it? Not that I am uneasy here, unable to study after my
summer’s work, but that I came back intending while I im-
proved my time here, to keep my eyes open for all opportunities
which might be worth my consideration.

Then first: — Can I be Adjutant of this new Cavalry corps
and second:—If I can, had I not better go? No time is to be
lost! .

If I am even to apply for a place it must be at once, no
waiting a week to decide whether it is best to do it or no, and
to ask everyone’s opinion.

318 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

You see how I feel about it; what you think and do will
settle the matter. If more cavalry go from Massachusetts (after
this Corps) they will be part of the next draft probably, and

I must go again sometime.

Camp GaimsHaw, GLoucesTer Point, Vircinis,
Sunpay, 1 Marcu 1863.

. . « We did nothing here last week. Got settled in camp,
began to regulate things, and to drill some. . . . Theoretically
the Paymaster will be here this week — when he will, in point
of fact, honor us, remains to be seen. My bill against Uncle
Sam is about $400.00.

As soon as we are well enough drilled and disciplined, we
shall undoubtedly go out on picket and scouting beyond the
lines, then we shall have sport. . . .

Though we are officers, and plenty of contraband cooks and
runners are handy, we can’t get anything to eat. So far, the
men have generally lived better than the officers. Those who
like oysters can indulge freely — York River bivalves are the
finest in the world —they are monsters. All kinds of ducks,
wild geese, woodcock, and quail, rabbits too, abound here, but
we must not shoot. . . .

We look for good weather e’er long — and action. We are in
the Brigade of General Busteed of N. Y.—the great orator of
the Sumner and Andrew school. . . .

Camp or DETACHMENT
Seconp MassacHusETTs CAVALRY.
Guoucesrer Pont, Vircinia, May 3, 1863.

. » « Each day of the advance of summer makes this spot more
enchanting. Spring —so lovely in New England — is here all
windy rain, but the approach of summer makes it a rival of
New England. If instead of the deserted farms, the apparently
barren plantations, once fertile in the extreme but devastated by

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 319

slavery with a finishing touch of war, were in the high state of
cultivation which peace and free labor would soon bring them
to, I should, I fear, become too attached to this lovely place.
As it is I realize its natural beauty more and more every day
and try to appreciate it for the country does not contain a finer
situation for a camp. Every thing here tends to make us con-
tented and happy. I enjoy the life I am leading wonderfully,
tho’ wish it could be enlivened by actual wer instead of “rumors
of war.” ...

There are but three companies here at present, those com-
manded by the pleasantest officers out of the five forming our
detachment. The Major, with the Assistant Surgeon (H.
Gamwell, M.D. of Huntington, Missouri), three Captains
(Washburn, Rice, Holman) and four Lieutenants (Stone,
Payson, Richards, and Alvord) are the officers now in camp.
All are gentlemen. Four were educated abroad (two being
Rugby boys) and are fine linguists— modern particularly.
Greek, Latin, French, German, and Portuguese books abound
in camp. . . . It would be very pleasant were it not for a sort
of feeling which I necessarily have that to be considered quite
the equal of the majority I should be a graduate of Oxford,
Cambridge, or Harvard.

I am quite surprised at one thing. It so happens that with one
exception, all the officers of the most carefully officered bat-
talion of the regiment are determined enemies of Governor
Andrew and Company, Lincoln and Company, and especially
anti-proclamationists. Consequently (?) all great friends of
McClellan. Speaking of George B.—I think Hooker’s testi-
mony will increase the former’s strength greatly. It reads as if
specially intended — by its language, not its facts—to be the
deathblow to McClellan. The latter’s testimony on the other
hand must hurt him, he having such an apparent poor mem-
ory of facts, and being so very careful in answers to questions.
Hooker says he is infinitely superior as a General to Mc-
Clellan or Burnside —I hope he will be able to prove that
this month. . . .

320 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Tuesday about noon all the troops at the Post were reviewed
by Secretary Seward and son, with the Prussian, Swedish, and
Danish ministers. Thursday there was another review by Gov-
ernor Cannon and Staff of Delaware. That day we were mus-
tered for another two months pay. Only mustered, not paid.
Notwithstanding the declarations from Washington, about reg-
ular payments, we dont expect any more pay for months. . . .

Camp or DETACHMENT 2D MaAssaACHUsETTs CAVALRY
West Port, Vircinia May 24, 1863.

Tho’ not in Richmond yet we are en route. I think I am
right in saying that our detachment of three companies is nearer
the rebel capitol [sic] than any other portion of our army.
We form the outposts to this place and West Point I am
sure is the place nearest Richmond now occupied by the
Union troops.

Contrabands and deserting rebels are constantly coming to
our lines and often bring Richmond papers — from the latter
we learn that the holding of this Point by us is a source of great
annoyance to the inhabitants of Richmond. . . .

No doubt they worry over our holding this place — as a base
for future operations it is highly important; in case of a sudden
second trial of a Peninsular campaign instead of the longer
one via Fredericksburg and Richmond R. R. the possession of
this place would be invaluable. We are all ready for the land-
ing here of any number of men... .

Tuesday, I commanded the advanced picket or cavalry out-
post. The reserve station is four or five miles beyond that. I
was in the saddle about 24 of the 28 hours I was on duty and
went far into rebeldom, getting acquainted with the country,
roads, woods, farms, houses, and contrabands — picking up gen-
eral information. I visited a plantation of four thousand acres
owned by Robert E. Lee, Jr. (son of the rebel general-in-
chief) and there had my first sight of slave field labor. On an
immense cornfield was a row of thirty or forty negroes, male
and female, of all ages, hoeing slowly, the overseer with broad-

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 321

brimmed hat and cane standing behind, forcing the old and the
little ones to keep up with the middle aged. This scene was but
half a mile from one of my picket stations, yet the property of
rebel general’s family was held in such respect by our generals
that strict orders were issued to disturb nothing on the farm.
But at last the overseer has been ordered to disappear — has
done so—the slaves are freemen. They labor now for them-
selves alone.

The country around here is beautiful — riding out beyond
our lines I am quite reminded of rides in Massachusetts. The
woods, although containing several varieties of trees not found
in New England, are composed largely of oaks, with many
hickories and some chestnuts — no maples. Pine woods are com-
mon too—(southern pine mixed with spruce and cedar). The
woods are now full of flowers — box flowers, wild honeysuckle,
lupins, strawberries, blackberries, locusts, violets, and others I
am unacquainted with. . . .

Yesterday as our daily mail boat, the “Swan” from York-
town was coming up here, just as she turned a point in the south
side of the river three miles from here a rebel battery of four
guns opened a very rapid fire on her. I happened to be where
I could see both beat and battery. . . . Every house within two
miles was set on fire — about ten in all. One elegant private
mansion of brick and stone furnished (a Lieutenant who was
there says) in the most expensive and luxurious manner was
found just abandoned — tea table all set, etc., etc. That shared
the same fate. The gunboat went down with the mail boat this
morning. ‘This is no doubt but the first of a series of attacks
with which we shall be favored now.

Unrrep States GovERNMENT Farm,
LEWINSVILLE, VIRGINIA,
Sunpay, AuGusrt 23, 1863.

. . - Scarcely was I relieved from duty as Officer of the Day on
Monday when I was detailed as Officer of Brigade Guard. (All
the other officers but two or three unwell and on light duty

322 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

were off with the Colonel and rest of command.) Had an easy
time till about midnight when I was aroused by arrival of
eleven rebel prisoners from the Colonel — Moseby and White’s
guerillas. From that time till morning I was at work trudging
between our camp and Centerville turning over the prisoners
with their descriptive list to the Provost Guard House of Gen-
eral King’s Division. Just before daylight an order came into
camp for every available man to proceed immediately to join
the Colonel. . .. About 300 men were raised. We started about
sunrise. ... We travelled for twelve hours constantly, went to
Leesburg and all around there everywhere. After it was pitch
dark we travelled over horrid roads and down and up terribly
steep ravines. We rested at night in a thick wood on a high point
of the Bull Run Mountains. It was ten P.M. At 3 o'clock we
were roused and started on. Just at daybreak we reached the
long-sought-for place — the camp of the guerilla chiefs Lieu-
tenant Colonel White and Major Mosby with their command—
about 550 men. As luck would have it, a prisoner we had taken,
a Mosby sergeant escaped from us. He reached his camp just
before we did, so we were just too late. They were alarmed and
just escaped. We had a skirmish, got a few men and some horses,
the rest escaped to the recesses of Ashby’s Gap — there it was
impossible to follow with success. . . . Friday morning our
squadron under Captain Holman was ordered to duty at Fort
Allen, Virginia — end of Chain Bridge, for a week. Yesterday
morning I was placed in command of a detachment of forty
men and a Lieutenant and sent here. It is an independent com-
mand. ...

It is ten P.M. —I have just been notified to have my men
saddle at once — am going after Mosby — orders from Head-
quarters of Brigade. It is a foolhardy chase but I must go.
There are Mosby excitements all around — every rebel on a
horse or mule is “Mosby”. ... Monday, 10 A.M. Have just
returned from a ride of twenty-five miles. We followed
Moseby and 60 men closely over towards Fairfax Court House,
then we got beyond our bounds and left him to the care of
the troops over that way.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 323

Cavacry Camp, VIENNA, VIRGINIA
Sunpay Ocroser 11, 1863.

. .. Friday about noon we received marching orders and in an
hour the whole command, the available men of three regiments
under Colonel Lowell started out with three days’ rations. We
marched in the pouring rain until dark. We then stopped in a
field of tall grass where we stood shivering and holding our
horses until about 1 A.M. when the rain ceased and we built
fires. At five we were started again and one of our first achieve-
ments was swimming a deep creek much swollen by rain. All
day we marched without halting, ate our hard bread and raw
salt pork in the saddle. We traversed the country back and
forth; at last found where the enemy lay (the guerilla chief-
tain White, with two hundred and fifty men) and then turned
back towards camp. Soon after dark the fires were replenished
with light wood and we gradually and silently withdrew from
the mount, remounted and turned towards Leesburg. Before
midnight we swam two streams, about 1 A.M. we passed
through Leesburg and at two bivouached [sic] a few miles be-
yond the town. Before four we were again in the saddle and
marching rapidly towards Snickersville, just below the Gap of
the same name, in the Blue Ridge. But as fate would have it,
we were fifteen minutes too late. White’s rear guard passed
through the Gap just as we got in sight. It was useless to
undertake to follow him into the mountains. We picked up
a few of his stragglers and had a slight skirmish.

Monday morning we continued our camp-ward march by
way of Bull Run. We crossed both the battlefields. The ground
is strewn with old clothes, uniforms, parts of equipments, arms,
etc. Pieces of shell and solid shot with cannister and grape are
quite abundant and too frequently you see the parts of skeletons
of both men and horses lying along the road. I counted six
skulls. At intervals too, human hands and feet are seen pro-
truding from insignificant mounds — soldiers’ graves. Man as a
soldier, who is made so much of at home by the few and who
is considered by the world in general, theoretically, to be in an

324 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

exalted and honorable position, is practically of less account than
the lowest animals. . . .

We are quite isolated and I fully anticipate a descent upon
our camp by White, in force, some fine night when we are
miles away running after Mosby or someone else. Should he do
so he will clear out the camp finely.

Heap Quarters CavALry BricaDE
Vienna, VIRGINIA
January 24, 1864.

. . - Friday 15th I heard that a notorious guerilla was at his
home somewhat sick — about five miles from camp. I got 25
men from the Colonel and permission to go after the man. I
started at noon expecting to return before dark but one cir-
cumstance after another kept leading me on and I rode thirty-
five miles returning about two o’clock Saturday morning with
three prisoners and two horses.

I had orders to arrest a certain citizen and bring him in. I
stopped, going out, and did so. I found him in a home alone
with his mother, an old helpless lady of eighty-five. Of course
she was greatly alarmed at the idea of my taking her son. I
thought it was very hard to leave her alone — the house had no
other within a mile — but it was a simple case of unconditional
orders, and with the thought that “such is civil war” I trotted
off Mr. Hunt leaving his mother almost crazy. Returning at
midnight, passing near the house, the man asked leave to go to
see how his mother was and I went with him. We found the
old lady crouched over a few warm ashes with not one stick of
wood in the house, nothing to burn, and unable to get anything.
I hesitated a moment between humanity and obedience. The
condition of the old lady was too much for me. She begged me
to let her son stay, and I did. The son agreed to be at my office
next day at noon and I was surprised at finding him true to his
word. Fortunately the Colonel did not ask for Mr. Hunt until
that day after noon so he was already to be taken before him.
He subsequently took the oath and went home. This is only an
ordinary case. I, a few days ago, sent into Washington the

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 325

father of a family of eleven children the oldest being but twelve,
a girl, and the mother is sick in bed. But I had to do it. It
seems to me sometimes that if a man is kept long enough in this
part of Virginia at such a time he will forget what it is to
feel at all.

Last Monday (the day it was published in Greenfield, by the
way) Major Crowninshield said to me while talking over a
little business, “Oh! Mr. Alvord —I have received notice that
your commission as First Lieutenant has been issued in Massa-
chusetts dated January 1, 1864.” I replied—“Ah! —a very ac-
ceptable New Year’s gift, Major!” He supposed so. And so it is.
All the fellows who went into the regiment as 2d’s when I did
— Stone, Dabney, Richards, Sim, Manning —are 1st Lieuten-
ants and it is pleasant to be placed on an equality with them. .. .

[Place and date lost. |

. » - The Invasion in Maryland is over apparently and Wash-
ington, D. C., U.S. A. (that is, the Dirtiest City in the United
States of America) still exists. But on the whole the affair
should be considered one of the most disgraceful to our govern-
ment that has occurred during the war. Two weeks ago today
the news reached Washington that rebels in force were going
towards Harper’s Ferry. A day or two later Martinsburg was
lost, Harper’s Ferry abandoned and the enemy entered Mary-
land. Two weeks ago today —the day on which we first got
the news —I received through one of my detectives — spies if
you prefer the name —a letter written at Richmond June 23d
by a Colonel, commanding of brigade of South Carolina Cav-
alry in which he said that his division was under orders to
march to Harper’s Ferry, that rations had been issued, enough
to go there — that they were then on the march, heading that
way. He went on to state that the force was 50,000 strong and
all veterans, mostly of Ewell’s Corps. In his opinion their ob-
ject was to take Washington — that they knew it to be defended
by a few undisciplined militia who would make no stand against
such troops as the Stonewall Brigade, etc. He thought they

326 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
would not go to the Ferry but take a more direct route to the
city and he expected to be with his friend (a lady) before the
letter was.

I knew the letter to be genuine: I was personally acquainted
— slightly — with the lady to whom it was written. I knew the
Colonel well by name and knew that he wrote regularly to the
lady. I usually have the letters examined before they reach her.
This one I kept because it had in it valuable information.
Knowing all these facts and that there was no doubt that this
information was in the main correct, I took the letter to Colonel
Lowell and explained the facts. I think he believed it also but

“not liking to endorse it entirely he forwarded the letter to Gen-
eral Augur with a note which left me the [sic] shoulder it all.
I was quite willing to do so— but alas! —I was merely a Lieu-
tenant of no account — had undoubtedly been duped — the letter
was probably written expressly to be sent to me — and with such
impression it was cast aside or if sent at all to the War Depart-
ment, no importance was attached to it. A day or two passed,
but vague accounts came of the raid in Western Maryland —
the Government seemed unable to determine the strength of
the force —or if it did know it would not tell it, and I was
laughed at about my false alarm. But I stuck to it and would
not give in. A few days more and while the city of Washington
was calmly sleeping —the War Department too apparently —
an armed host encamped before the town — in fact entered its
very suburbs.

Then all was intense alarm — there was a rush for the North,
but railroads and telegraphs were cut and escape was impossible.
All were panic stricken. Fortunately General Grant had learned
that a strong force had left him — that the people here failed to
find it out, and so he, without asking anyone’s advice sent up
troops. The Sixth Corps arrived just in time —there was a short

fight just beyond the President’s House, the rebels heard the

well known yell of the “Fighting Sixth” and Washington was

saved. The next morning no rebels were in the vicinity of
Washington.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 327

All now admit that had they made a dash the first day they
reached the skirts of the city they could have entered it and
temporarily held it, almost without opposition.

Of this fact there is not the slightest doubt. Neither is there
any that the rebel force was many thousand strong and in-
tended to take Washington until confounded by a charge from
veterans where they only expected to find militia.

Some (copperheads) are foolish enough to say that the city
was besieged for two days by five hundred men, but they are
not listened to.

Someone blundered. With thirty thousand rebels in Mary-
land a week our government neglected to learn the fact and we
were told that it was all a hoax — merely a few guerillas near
Hagerstown. It is shameful!

And now they will probably succeed in returning unharmed
with millions worth of plunder and laughing over the scare
they gave us and their success in breaking up Grant’s Army.

I wonder if anyone remembers a certain letter forwarded
properly by an insignificant Provost Marshal, notifying the
War Department of what was to come.

Where my regiment is I do not know. I am not with it —
I do know that, and I am sorry for it. The regiment has gone
in pursuit of the “invaders” with the Sixth Corps. Colonel
Lowell reported to General Wright for temporary duty on last
Wednesday and has command of several thousand cavalry —
all in pursuit of the rebels. I have tried to get relieved and
ordered to my regiment but have not been successful. . . .

Fats Cuurcn, Vircinia, May, (?) 1864.

... Grant seems to be doing tolerably well though he has a hard
task before him. We don’t feel so elated here as you do in New
England — we see how well matched he is by Lee. He has,
as I suppose he must, “changed his base” to White House on
the Pamunkey — and he is working around so as to advance on
a line between White House and Richmond. . . . Banks, Butler,

328 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

and Sigel are whipped and all dead men. I am sorry, especially
for the two former. I believe Sigel to be a good fighting man
and officer. Banks and Butler are fine executives but they
missed it when they tried to be Generals in the field. The U. S.
has lost two good men — in their proper sphere.

General Augur has sent for me to be in town tomorrow
morning to devise with the Provost Marshal General of the
Department and the General himself—a new pass system. This
looks larger on paper than it really is.

May 11, 1864

[Still hunting for Mosby — the first sheet of the letter is de-
stroyed. |

. . » A bedroom on the ground floor formed a wing to the
house, under this there appeared to be no cellar. All the fur-
niture was removed, the carpet taken up but no opening nor
loose boards appeared in the floor. A stone chimney stood at
the end of the wing, jutting into the room. Each side of this,
filling the miche were drawers and shelves with a small cup-
board at the bottom. The floor to there appeared tight and O. K.

I finally tried the little threshold to the cupboard door and
found it was easily removed. That covered a crack in the
matched boards and at once showed the whole floor of the cup-
board to be a trap door. This I removed and letting myself
through the aperture, I stood in a fine underground apartment
filled with uniforms both federal and rebel, arms, equipments
and Mosby’s personal effects. On the wall hung a satchel con-
taining his private papers, and among them his two commissions
as Captain and “Major of Partizan Rangers” signed by the
rebel Secretary of War.

This was quite a find and I got the credit for it. I knew
there must be a hole for the fox somewhere and I stuck to it
till I found it.

I got into several other secret places before I got back and
had a pretty good time but hard work. The National Repub-
lican of Washington — Page 2, Column 1 — May 4th. — The

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 329

Tribune, Page 1, last Column, May 4th, and the Boston Jour-
nal, Page 1, May 5 or 6 all noticed my capture, the two former
giving my name... . They talk of making me forward one or
both of the commissions but as yet I keep both. I have also
autographs of Stuart, Ashby, and others— Henry A. Wise, etc.
and numerous captured relics. . . .

Fort ErHan ALLEN

Provost MarsHaw’s OFFICE

Jury 1864

. - . Started at noon up into Maryland at the head of the
column. Colonel Lowell commands all the cavalry — about
2500 men. This new movement on account of another rebel
raid which is in progress. Martinsburg is again lost by us.
. » » On the last tramp after the rebels our men were in the
saddle fourteen days—the regiment lost fifty all told. Colo- ,
nel Lowell’s horse was shot twice. .. .

Fort ErHan ALLEn Aucust 1864.

. + » The rebels have again entered Pennsylvania, and now
Sheridan has landed here with his cavalry and today starts after
them. I hope we can at least protect our own borders. Sherman
does well and Commodore Farragut will probably be successful
in Mobile, but otherwise we are doing nothing in the war but
losing men and augmenting the Peace party. Is it true that New
England is getting tired of the war? I hope not, yet on re-
flection it is but natural. We are told by officers from home that
the people are getting discontented. I hope they will still have
backbone enough to start the campaign of ’65 with a fine army
and large reserves. If that proves unsuccessful, I shall not be
surprised to find the army too, for peace at any price. The
rebels fight better every day, and our men just the opposite.
Just at present affairs look very dark but I hope the cloud
will soon pass. Grant, Meade, Hooker, Sheridan, Halleck,
Augur, and Doubleday were in town on yesterday — and lots
of Brigadiers.

330 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

I have been on duty here since I wrote. Last I heard of my
regiment it was at Frederick City, Maryland, and Colonel
Lowell had reported to General Hunter. It may join Sheridan
now — if so, goodby to the Department of Washington. . . .

Wepwespay, SEPTEMBER 21, 1864. MIDNIGHT.

. . - It has been a busy day with me. The fighting in the Valley
hurried me up and I tried to get off tonight but did not succeed.
I shall go in the morning — probably at six. I left Fort Ethan
Allen at noon and my last twelve hours I have rushed matters.

I was in town yesterday and heard of Sheridan’s great victory.
I at once got excused from Court Martial and made prepara-
tions to go tomorrow to Harper’s Ferry en route for my regi-
ment. It will be hard for me to find it now I guess. . . . The
victory was a glorious one and our cavalry did most of the
work. My Brigade was undoubtedly in it. Lowell now
has the Reserve Brigade 1st Division Torbett’s Cavalry Corps.
It is composed of my regiment and Ist, 2nd., and 3rd., Reg-
ular Cavalry. Lowell is making a famous name... .

HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA, SEPTEMBER 29, 1864.

. . . + I write this in Head Quarters Tent of 1st Brigade, Ist
Division 8th Army Corps (Department of West Virginia)
Middle Military Division — in other words in the private quar-
ters of Cousin and Colonel George D. Wells who commands
the Brigade. He is well andsoam I. He looks rough as do all
good soldiers in the field. His command won the day at Fisher’s
Hill— you may say he won it. Elwell (now Captain) is on
duty again, was but slightly hurt. I saw Ripley in Winchester.
He was shot through the leg, will be on duty again this week....

Here are General Sheridan’s Head Quarters. His front is
six or ten miles distant — THERE is my regiment and I hope
to join it tonight.

The cavalry is fighting all the time.

So far Sheridan has been splendidly successful. How much
farther he can go remains to be seen. We HOPE to enter Lynch-
burg. The 6th and 19th Corps are advancing.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 331

Heap Quarters CAvALRY RESERVE BRIGADE
Mowpte Mirrrary Division
In the field near SrrasBuRG, VIRGINIA
Ocroser 14, 1864

... The campaign of General Sheridan has been very success-
ful. The battle of Winchester (or Berryville) and Fisher’s
Hill completely used up the army of Early. Throwing away
their arms his men scattered among the mountains.

Our army then advanced to Harrisonburg and the cavalry
went to Stanton [sic] and then east to Waynesboro destroy-
ing stores, railroads, etc. We had some skirmishing near
Harrisonburg.

I joined my regiment 4 miles South of that place September
30, and October 1 went onto Colonel Lowell’s staff again as
Provost Marshal and Aide. We staid six days around there and
then the Army retired destroying everything in the line of
forage and subsistence as we came. . . . We had quite a brisk |
skirmish on the evening of the 8th.

Early on the morning of the gth we moved to meet the
enemy. You have seen the result of that day’s fight in the
papers. With two divisions of cavalry — Merritt’s and Custar’s
[sic] — 1st and 3rd — we completely scattered the entire body
of the whole rebel cavalry under Rosser, and chased them
over thirty miles. It is not boasting to say that my Brigade
did much more than its share in the victory of that day. You
have seen Sheridan’s report of captures—of the whole we
took the only two colors taken, four pieces of artillery, with
caissons, three ambulances, two forges, and seven wagons of
stores, also thirty prisoners of war. I was busy as Aide
throughout the fight and escaped all injury... .

In THE VaLLey. Ocroser 16, 1864
. - « October 8 we retired to Tom’s Brook near Round Top
Mountain — 6 miles south of Woodstock, and camped early in
P.M. We soon found that Mr. Confederacy was following us
up and went out to see about it. We discovered the enemy in
force and had a brisk skirmish. The three officers in charge of

332 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

the skirmish line being wounded early in the fight, I was
ordered by Colonel Lowell to take command of the line in the
immediate front of the enemy, and remained there gradually
driving them until darkness closed the engagement. Bullets
struck all around me thickly — one glancing on a rock in front
of my horse bounded. up so that I caught it in my hand. We
lost that night one killed and seven wounded, all from 2nd
Massachusetts. [Then follow fuller details of the engagement
described in letter above.

. « » Colonel Lowell lost his twelfth horse since the opening of
the campaign and a bullet striking the pummel of his saddle
glanced through his coat. One of General Merritt’s aides stand-
ing between the Colonel and myself was wounded. . . . I should
not be surprised if this victory ended Sheridan’s campaign but
it depends on Grant. We may go up in the Valley again.

My work on the field of battle as aide requires in my horses,
endurance, speed, agility, and courage. Bill has plenty of pluck
and endurance but no speed and cannot jump at all —he
stumbles too on rough ground. I shall dispose of him if I can
well replace him. My mare does very well — the Colonel wants
her but cannot get her. . ..

[When Colonel Lowell was killed, Alvord was detailed to
take the body home to Massachusetts. This letter was written
on his way back to the army.]

Everett House,
Martinspurc, Vircinia, NovEMBER 10, 1864.

. . » I must confess that for the first time in my soldier life I
do not want to rejoin the command. In spite of my endeavors
to keep cheerful I am “blue” all the time. Leaving a happy
home to enter the army, I led an easy life therein and finally
with Colonel Lowell I found a true and very dear friend and
almost a second home —an army home where I was as con-
tented as I could possibly be. But now he is gone I feel alone

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 333

again — like a stranger in a strange land. I have lost my dearest
friend and my “army home” is broken up.

I loved, I honored and admired —I almost worshipped him,
and now he is no longer at Head Quarters with the command.
I feel there is no longer any interest there for me. . . .

The Cause should be all the more dear to me and so it shall
be! I shall not let personal feelings influence me, but try to
overcome my dislike to return, and go back to duty in earnest
and let my duties absorb my time and attention. It will be
lonely indeed without the Colonel but I trust that my life as a
soldier is not to continue very much longer.

I really believe that the result of the election and of our
military combination now in prosecution are soon to bring the
enemy to terms. I think the prospect more cheerful than ever

before and such is the general impression generally in the army,
I think. ...

Heap Quarrers CAVALRY RESERVE BRIGADE
Mippte Mixrrary Division
Camp Russe, Vircinia, Decemser 18, 1864.

. . - Saturday 1oth I got a letter from home telling me they
had seen in The Republican that my commission as Captain had
been issued. I knew it had been sent for but the letter was my
first news of its issue. A week ago this morning I received the
document itself. . . . I shall return to duty with my regiment
. » meanwhile I remain Provost Marshal.
. .. General Gibbs is an old soldier — served in Mexico — a good
officer I suppose, but not a proper commander for a cavalry
brigade in the field — a very different man from Charles Russell
Lowell. ...

Playing by bands, cheering by men, firing of salutes, and
other demonstrations of joy at Thomas’ glorious victory are
the order of the day today.

Savannah too—is probably ours by this time. At any rate
Sherman has been quite successful and I have not the least
doubt that Savannah and Charleston will both fall before Jan-
uary Ist, 65.

334 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Now let Grant pitch in and what will be left if he wins? We
can do no more here. We have done our share — were a little
in advance of the times that is all. The War news is good! ...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virncim1A, Marcu 5, 1865.

. « » Thursday, March 2nd., we passed through Staunton and
leaving the Valley Pike moved towards Waynesboro. General
Custer was in the advance. Reached Waynesboro found Gen-
eral Early there with all the troops he could raise to oppose us.
Pitched into him, and captured the whole crowd with the ex-
ception of Generals Early, Rosser, and Wharton and their
staffs. We captured over 1200 prisoners including 87 com-
manding officers, 12 pieces of artillery, 13 battle flags, and 100
wagons and teams. It was a complete success. . . .

Today we have arrived here and camped near the University
of Virginia — I am going over to see it as soon as I get this done.

Tomorrow morning we leave for some place —I think we
go toward Lynchburg. . . .

Marcu 11TH. COLUMBIA ON THE JAMEs River,
VircINIA.

. » - It is my birthday. I today arrive at my majority. . . . We
are today resting after marching two hundred and fifty miles
since we left Winchester. Tomorrow we march again.

Marcu 15TH. TAYLorsviILLe, HANoverR County,
VincInia.

. .. We are today camped within twentyone miles of Richmond,
and still unmolested. . . . Having done almost all we can to
destroy all communication between the country North of the
James and Richmond I fully believe we shall return to
North... .

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 335

Kinc Wiii1am County Court House, Vircim1a
Marcu 18, 1865.
. . » For twenty days we have been in the saddle and have
marched over 400 miles. I wanted to go home the last day of
February but am very glad I did not miss participating in the
raid under Sheridan which in the importance of the work ac-
complished with uniform success etc. will be counted the great-
est of the war....
I think that another expedition is before us.

Heap Quarters CAVALRY RESERVE BRIGADE.
Berore Pererspurc, Vircinia, Marcu 28, 1865.

.. » Friday, March 24th our Paymasters arrived and made us
happy by the peculiar sensation of handling many greenbacks.
Saturday we left White House and crossing the Chickahominy
at Jones Bridge, camped near Charles City Court House. Sun- -
day we moved to Deep Bottom and crossed the James River
at that point on a pontoon. The President, Secretary Stanton
and Grant with friends and ladies, witnessed our crossing. We
camped near Jones Landing that night, and yesterday crossed
the Appomattox and came here, twelve miles from City Point
on the Army Railroad. . . . Temporarily at least we form a
part of the armies operating against Richmond. . . .

It is astounding to see how near our lines are to those of
the enemy. The day we crossed the James the President re-
viewed the 25th Corps— fifteen thousand colored troops. It
was a splendid sight —I went over. Ascending the “lookout”
the Confederate capital was in plain sight. I could see the sec-
ond stories of the houses. Right under my nose were the enemy
works and camps with their occupants. Our line of main works
and theirs are within 500 yards of one another. Our pickets
and theirs are within ro feet—rather close! I saw them
talking together — playing cards and so on.

All this in the Army of the James. In the Army of the Poto-
mac the lines and pickets are a little further apart but not much.
Every night a shell is thrown from each fort in front of Peters-
burg every five minutes until morning. Pleasant for neighbors!

336 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Today everyone is busy. Many, many men are moving to the
left. The 25th Corps only remain in the old position of the
Army of the James and the gth Corps alone holds the present
line of the Army of the Potomac. A// the rest are tonight mass-
ing on the left and all are to be under arms at 8 A. M. to-
morrow. We move at six A.M. This will surely be a big fight
for Lee must know of our movements. I do not think we shall
be in the battle but I do think that while the armies are engaged
in the battle we shall slip out into the country between Lee and
Johnson and there remain cutting railroads and so forth for
awhile — coming out at Raleigh — joining Sherman wherever
he may be. We have fifteen days rations on hand — that means
about three weeks work in the enemy’s country.

That we shall be gone that long I have no doubt, nor have
I that we shall join Sherman in the end. Both provided we are
not interfered with by any of the armies of the Confederacy.

IN THE FIELD.
Near Dinwippie Court House, Vircinia
Sunpay, Apri 2, 1865.

... The first day of April A. D. 1865 will be recorded in his-
tory as one in which one Robert E. Lee was most thoroughly
fooled by a certain Phillip [sic] Sheridan.

On Wednesday the 29th the army moved and Sheridan’s
Cavalry embracing that of the Shenandoah, Potomac and James
camped that night at Dinwiddie Court House.

The instant the Army of the Potomac moved, as is invariably
the case, it began to rain and poured Thursday and Friday
rendering the roads impassable for wagons and almost for ar-
tillery.

Thursday 30th we moved from Dinwiddie Court House
toward the Southside road and our brigade was in the extreme
advance. One mile from the Court House we ran into the
enemy cavalry. They held a swamp in our immediate front
and it was evident we must have numbers greater than they
to take the position.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 337

The roads were in such a state that the troops came up very
slowly. When we met the enemy only one other brigade of our
division was up. But Sheridan was with us and without waiting
for more he pushed us on. All day we fought hard in the swamp
— mostly dismounted —and camped at night with the rebels
in our immediate front and having gained but about a mile
during the day. The loss in our brigade during the day was 2
officers wounded, 2 captured, 5 men killed, 19 wounded, 21
missing.

We had FitzHugh Lee’s Cavalry opposed to us — probably
double the number we had engaged. We took quite a number
of prisoners during the day. It was done mostly by our own
regiment. Captain Kuhle of my regiment who has risen so
rapidly from the ranks duriag the past two years was captured
early in the day....

About noon on Friday after fighting obstinately till that time
we found rebel infantry in our front. Prisoners taken reported —
Picket’s veteran division of Longstreet’s Corps as having come
down to oppose us.

In the afternoon we had to withdraw our lines slightly and
about 4 P.M. rebel infantry swarmed in from all sides of us
and charged. We were overpowered — badly whipped but not
driven nor routed nor demoralized. Just then Custer’s Division
came up and we, retiring to our interior line held the enemy
and position last taken, through the night. . . .

Yesterday morning Sheridan had all his men up—4 Division
Cavalry — and he was mad. He said his boys were not in the
habit of fighting infantry with cavalry alone in such a country
but he would teach Longstreet that he must not “buck” against
him (Sheridan). So he got the 5th Corps, General Warren to
assist and we went in early.

We found three infantry divisions besides the rebel cavalry
opposing us. We pressed them back constantly all day — the
cavalry working alone till four P. M. Then the 5th Corps were
taken in— Warren being too slow, Sheridan relieved him on
the battlefield and led the 5th Corps in their charge, in person.

338 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

We were victorious, we captured the enemy’s works and
guns, we broke their lines, we completely routed them. It was
not like the former battles of the Army of the Potomac but
like our work in the Valley... .

General Sheridan this A. M. reports 6000 prisoners already
counted, 12,000 stand of small arms, 9 guns and more than a
dozen battleflags captured — The Confederate general Ransom
killed. ...

I am well — uninjured — my horses are pretty well, the mare
a little hurt. . ..

It is now about daybreak — we are to move to the front at
once today.

Fighting — very heavy —is now going on in Meade’s prin-
ciple [sic] front — the centre of the main army — nearer Peters-
burg. We are still on the extreme left of Grant’s line. We may
be engaged today and may not be. Reporters etc. have such ad-
mirable facilities here that all casualties will be promptly
reported in the newspapers.

A few such victories as yesterday and Lee will have no army
left.

Yesterday A.M. on the skirmish line, at 8 o’clock New York
papers of March 30 were sold. . . .

PETeRsBuRG, VIRGINIA APRIL 3p, 1865

. .- I have neither time nor inclination to talk about Grant and
Butler. The latter I would gladly see usefully employed — the
former is about to show himself in active operation versus
BM ces

There will be many killed and wounded in the coming fights
— but few cavalry men. Should anything occur to me, I have
made such arrangements that it shall be telegraphed to you
without fail at once. So if you hear nothing by telegraph within
twelve hours of the time you get news of a battle, rely upon it
I am well, and at the post of duty.
It is midnight and all is well.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 339

Cover Hitt on Appomatrox Court House,
Vincinia. Sunpay Apri 9, 1865 — Noon.

[Written in pencil.]

I must write to you right away if only a few lines. Having
followed up the rebel army closely since the fall of Richmond
and Petersburg, General Sheridan last night overtook Lee at
this place and this morning we opened a handsome battle. We
had driven the enemy —had reached open place, Lee’s whole
army lay in plain sight with all their wagons and so on. The
Cavalry under Sheridan was just starting upon a grand charge
which was to overwhelm the Confederacy when just at 10 A. M.
General Robert E. Lee came riding to our lines bearing a flag
of truce and asked of General P. H. Sheridan a cessation of
hostilities that a conference might be had as he, General Lee
intended to surrender to General Sheridan the Army of North-
ern Virginia.

At this hour Generals U. S. Grant and R. E. Lee are con-
versing at a house within my sight and the contending hosts
await the result.

3 P.M. General Lee has just notified General U. S. Grant

that his terms (“Unconditional Surrender”) are accepted!

BuRKESVILLE JUNCTION, VIRGINIA.
Wepnespay Apri 12, 1865.

I wrote you a few lines while at Appomattox Court House
but was too busy to write at any other time. At sundown that
day the Army of Northern Virginia was allowed to salute their
“stars and bars” before lowering it—then we raised the old
“stars and stripes” ’mid national salutes— bands playing and
so on. About 22,500 men were paroled by General Patrick
Provost Marshal General — the next day. The amount of guns,
wagons, and War Munitions generally that fell into our hands,
is immense.

The officers were allowed to retain their side arms and per-
sonal baggage.

340 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

While the salutes were being fired I chanced to find a sprig
of real Mayflower in bloom near the scene of Lee’s surrender.
I picked it for you and will enclose it.

Owing to bad weather on Monday no formal surrender in
presence of Grant and his armies took place. Everyone was dis-
appointed — and it seems to me this had a right to be... .

General Lee, late Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of
the Confederate States recommends all said armies to cease
hostilities and lay down their arms. In giving himself up he
virtually voluntarily closes the contest for had he hoped to
prolong it by any military processes he might easily have gotten
away himself with other high officers and left some subordinate
to surrender the army for him.

A military commission consisting of Generals Merritt, Gib-
bon, and Griffin was appointed to settle all matters pertaining
to the surrender. A lot of infantry stayed there and General
Sheridan with his cavalry started at once for this place. We

arrived this noon and have just encamped. . . . I should not be
surprised if we should stay here some time, rest, refit, etc.

Eleven days ended the Virginia campaign for 1865. What
will now be done with the vast numbers of men here and here-
abouts remains to be seen. Some important points will be gar-
risoned and held—among them are Richmond, Petersburg,
Lynchburg, and other points. . .. We are where we can move
North, East, South or West as may be required.

General Grant has gone to meet the President and I suppose
a complete re-organization of the armies in Virginia will take
place. I am quite willing to rest awhile and our men and horses
need rest and good care very much. Both my horses are tired
and need recuperation. .

I firmly believe the army of Johnson will surrender. . . .

I do not think the Government will subsist a large army of
volunteers through another winter although I should not be
surprised if the greater part of the cavalry remained in service
a full year more. And yet I may be a citizen in civil life at
home much sooner. A few weeks will determine what will be
done.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 341

On Sunday morning April 2d after the victory of the Ist
instant I wrote you a long letter in pencil on the back of
General Orders. That day we moved West by South, got the
Southside Road, pressed on, overtook the remains of the in-
fantry which fought us the day before — pitched into them and
bivouacked just in the rear of our skirmish lines, darkness hav-
ing ended the contest.

Another mail came that night but no letter from home. I
wrote you a short pencil letter and sent it off April 3.

While I was writing the federal troops were marching into
both Petersburg and Richmond and Lee commenced retreating
with his army.

Then commenced a grand footrace: Grant versus Lee. Lee
was North of Appomattox and “we all” South of it. Lee had
the start and succeeded in securing the Bridges at Bevil’s and
Goode’s on April 4. and crossed there to the South of Appo-
mattox.

That night our cavalry which was in advance overtook him,
attacked him, and we had quite a hard fight, night, as usual,
ending the contest. We moved in the night, marched to Dinnis-
ville. On the 5th we reached Jetersville on the Danville R. R.
just before Lee’s advance got there. We held the position till
the infantry came up and then when they entrenched them-
selves we moved out again as “feelers” and found Lee’s Army
near Amelia Court House. Some of the cavalry went in
and got prisoners, 200 wagons, and 8 or 9 battleflags, also
six guns.

We made all our dispositions and expected a battle in that
vicinity, but in the night Mr. Lee made a dash and got by our
left—between Painesville and the Appomattox—and on the 6th
we had to chase again. We struck him in the flank that day —
charged and in conjunction with a part of the 6th Corps we cut
off General Ewell and his whole corps — got 10,000 prisoners,
80 battle flags, guns and wagons too numerous to mention.

On the 7th Lee recrossed the Appomattox at High Bridge
on the Southside road, burning it behind him. There was a
fight at Rice’s Station, after which we moved on along Lee’s
left flank trying to head him off.

342 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

April 8th in the afternoon our cavalry reached Appomattox
Station near Clover Hill and found a part of Lee’s army there
getting supplies from trains which had come from Lynchburg.
Custer was ahead and pitched in as usual. The men were driven
from the dépot, five locomotives with trains captured, the R. R.
held, prisoners, guns, and battle flags taken. We followed
Custer closely and fought the rebel troops all night long —
waiting for our infantry to come up. During the night it
came and at daylight we arranged for and commenced a
great battle.

But it was cut short by Lee’s surrender. At noon I wrote you
about it.

Just at the time of the surrender the scene was a grand one.
Our infantry was pressing forward in long, strong lines, the
cavalry on either flank was a little in advance and swinging
round so that the whole line of our army formed like a new
moon, the convexity towards the enemy.

We had arrived at a point where the whole of the rebel army
lay before us en masse, batteries in position, guarding its trains.
We were just exchanging fire with the advance skirmish line
and the cavalry had formed preparatory to a grand charge —
when the appearance of the white flag stayed all proceedings.

Five minutes later and thousands of cavalrymen would have
gone dashing in upon the enemy hosts. Our brigade was formed
upon the extreme right and were nearest to the enemy when we
halted. We did the last fighting in the campaign—so also we
did the first. When Sheridan left Winchester our brigade was
in advance and the first to meet the enemy — we were the first
to reach White House, the first to come to the James.

Leaving City Point we had the first fight at Dinwiddie
Court House, March 30, and that was the first fighting of the
eleven day campaign.

We have lost heavily — fought hard — in this brief campaign
— but I am among those who are still well. . . .

We here in this vast army know only what occurs in our im-
mediate vicinity. Of all the other news we get only vague ru-
mors and depend upon the papers for details and for all news
away from this part of Virginia. . . .

Peace is near at hand.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 343

May 28, 1865.
... Sunday it was rainy and muddy — we packed up and started
at 7 A.M. Passed over Long Bridge, up 14th Street across
Pennsylvania Avenue and past Willard’s 14th Street Front.
On the balcony stood our General Sheridan — looking upon
us for the last time. The people were just turning out for
church as we passed. The streets were crowded.

Word was passed along the column that General Sheridan
was reviewing us for the last time and as we marched by where
he stood the whole command of cavalry uncovered, a regiment
at a time, and cheer after cheer rent the air. It was an occasion
on which more feeling was shown than on Tuesday.

Tuesday could not have been a better day for the great re-
view. Bright and pleasant, cool in morning and at night — not
very hot at noon. The road was good. We rose early, dressed
ourselves up “to kill” and were ready at the appointed hour.
The regiment was formed in three battalions of four companies °
each and for the time being I commanded the third of these. I
rode Bill.

Of course our line of march from the Capitol the whole
length of Pennsylvania Avenue past the Treasury, White
House, War and Navy Departments to “the Circle” was one
grand ovation. The streets were however still in mourning and
our reception was a simple cordial welcome —no bravado or
braggadocio. Our cavalry under General Merritt (Sheridan
left for Texas on Monday) led off and attracted much atten-
tion. In front of the White House we passed the reviewing
officers —the President and General Grant. Our Brigade was
one of the last to pass and as we did so Grant remarked “that
is the best looking of all the cavalry brigades — they are soldiers”
and for this old Gibbs is now wearing his second star by brevet.
Should the truth be told, General Gibbs was in Washington
nominally sick’ . . . for five days previous to the review and
Colonel Crowninshield commanding the brigade in his absence
should have the full credit of preparing it for review. So wags
the military world!

1 The letter says: “really on a spree.”

344 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Among the people I recognized were Governor Andrew,
Mr. Dawes, and John M. Forbes. Carrie Sherman threw me a
fine bouquet at the war office. After passing in review ourselves
we came back to camp and the crowd waited and witnessed the
review of the Army of the Potomac. I ionged to see rather than
to be seen but am not sure, on the whole, that I was not in the
most honorable position.

JAMES OTIS AND JONATHAN SWIFT:
COMMENTS UPON
THEIR LITERARY RELATIONSHIP

FLOY PERKINSON GATES

O far as I am aware, no one has commented upon the lit-

erary relationship between James Otis, the “firebrand” of
the American Revolution, and Jonathan Swift. The latter,
however, appears to have been one of Otis’s chief models in his
controversial satire. Direct quotation from Swift, specific appli-
cation of portions of his works, and seeming imitation of his
method lead to this conclusion.

Otis cites Bernard Mandeville, Thomas Hobbes, Alexander
Pope, John Dryden, “Martinus Scriblerus,” John Locke, Sam-
uel Butler, and other well-known writers in his pamphlets, to-
gether with Swift, and shows a great liking for Locke, but Swift
seems to have been his favorite as far as satiric method is con-
cerned. Otis refers formally to Swift twice in the Vindication
of the British Colonies,’ bringing the pamphlet to a close with
an application of the syllogistic “Learning is nothing but wind”
from A Tale of a Tub, to the “gentleman from Halifax”;

1 Some Political Writings of James Otis, Parts 1 and 1, Charles F.
Mullet, Editor, University of Missouri Studies, tv, Nos. 3 and 4 (Co-

lumbia: University of Missouri, 1929), Part 11, 137, 151. All other ref-
erences are to this edition.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 345

and Otis alludes to Swift three times in the Remarks on the De-
fence of the Halifax Libel, each time turning a specific bit of
Swift’s satire upon the “gentleman from Halifax” (Part n,
165; 166; 168).

The matter of picking out passages from Otis’s writings in
direct imitation of Swift’s manner is rather difficult, for certain
practices in the satiric method are common property. Swift’s
method, however, is individual in its allegory, humor, fierce
grossness, and use of ironic absurdities, and Otis seems to imitate
part of these qualities. He fashions no original, sustained alle-
gory; the allegory that he uses is chiefly in the terms of 4 Tale
of a Tub, of Martinus Scriblerus, and the like. He attempts
some humor in the manner of Swift, and there is an amusing
paragraph in the Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists (Part
ul, 34 ff.) which is highly reminiscent of the Lilliputian practice
of choosing officers of state, on the one hand, and of the grand
academy of Lagado and its projectors, on the other. Less fe-
rocious grossness abounds than one might expect in a disciple
of Swift. In fact, only two or three times does Otis approximate
the indelicacy of Swift, and one of these instances, a lampoon in
the Remarks on the Defence of the Halifax Libel (Part u,
165), is introduced by a phrase — unobjectionable enough with-
in itself — from Swift. Otis was fond of dealing with ironic ab-
surdities, but instances which seem to indicate clearly that Swift
was the model are hard to find. There is a brief passage in the
Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists (Part 1, 115) in
which Otis suggests that the nabobs be taxed to support the Eng-
lish government, with something of the twang of Swift’s Modest
Proposal for Preventing the Children of the Poor from being a
Burden,’ and there is a section with absurdities presented in the
Vindication of the American Colonists (Part u, 137) in which
Otis refers formally to Swift’s Modest Proposal.

? This passage is also in the vein of Montesquieu, and Otis knew
Montesquieu. (Cf. Otis’s The Right of the British Colonies Asserted and
Proved, Part 1, 66.) The association with the taxation theme, however,
and the immediate concern of the whole pamphlet with Swift lends color

to the influence of the latter. Perhaps the passage is an echo of both
writers.

346 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

In addition to satiric method, Otis and Swift have a keen
appreciation for the general niceties of style, great earnestness,
and the like in common, and a further study of the two men
might disclose further imitation on the part of Otis. It would
be a mistake, however, to stress the influence upon Otis of Swift
to the exclusion of others. But the point remains that Otis drew
inspiration from Swift, and this simple fact is worthy of notice
in literary history —and particularly in the interpretation of
Otis’s satire.

A BOOK REVIEW BY HERMAN MELVILLE
JOHN HOWARD BIRsS

_ evidence of Herman Melville’s knowledge of the sea-
tales of that other gfeat novelist, James Fenimore Cooper,
is of decided interest. In 1852 Melville wrote to the committee
in charge of the demonstration held in Cooper’s honor that “his
works are among the earliest I can remember, as in my boy-
hood producing a vivid and awakening power upon my mind.”
This was after the publication of Moby-Dick, in which he had
included among the anthology of quotations appended to that
volume an extract from The Pilot. This novel and The Sea
Lions Melville seems to have reviewed for the Literary World,
of New York City, during 1849. To Melville has also been as-
cribed an article on The Red Rover appearing in the same jour-
nal.’ While there is internal indication of his authorship, it
has been definitely ascertained to be his composition, the holo-
graph manuscript having been found among the Duyckinck
Papers of the New York Public Library. The manuscript
and printed versions have been collated and a few errors
silently corrected, so that the text here reprinted for the first
time is considered to be nearest Melville’s original intention.

1 The Literary World, vi, Number 163 (March 16, 1850), 276-277:

i i ae |

' wn —

i eel

rT aSrllhlCUrrOlC

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 347

A Tuoucurt on Boox-Binpinc

The Red Rover by J. Fenimore Cooper. Revised Edition.

Putnam.

The sight of the far-famed “Red Rover,” sailing under the
sober-hued muslin wherewith Mr. Putnam equips his lighter
sort of craft, begets in us a fastidious feeling touching the pro-
priety of such a binding for such a book. Not that we ostenta-
tiously pretend to any elevated degree of artistic taste in this
matter ; — our remarks are but limited to our egotistical fancies.
Egotistically, then, we would have preferred for the “Red
Rover” a flaming suit of flame-colored morocco, as evanescently
thin and gauze-like as possible, so that the binding might hap-
pily correspond with the sanguinary fugitive title of the book.
Still better, perhaps, were it bound in jet black with a red streak
round the borders (pirate fashion); or, upon third thoughts, °
omit the streak and substitute a square of blood-colored bunting
on the back, imprinted with the title, so that the flag of the “Red
Rover” might be congenially flung to the popular breeze after
the buccaneer fashion of Morgan, Black-Beard, and other free
and easy, dare-devil, accomplished gentlemen of the sea.

While throwing out these cursory suggestions, we gladly ac-
knowledge that the tasteful publisher has attached to the vol-
ume a very felicitous touch of the sea superstitions of pirates. In
the mysterious cyphers in book-binders’ relievo stamped upon the
covers, we joyfully recognize a poetical signification and pic-
torial shadowing forth of the horse-shoe, which in all honest
and God-fearing piratical vessels is invariably found nailed to
the mast. By force of contrast this clever device reminds us of
the sad luck of invention in most of our book-binders. Books,
gentlemen, are a species of men, and introduced to them you
circulate in the “very best society” that this world can furnish,
without the intolerable infliction of “dressing” to go into it. In
your shabbiest coat and cosiest slippers you may socially chat,
even with the fastidious Earl of Chesterfield; and lounging
under a tree enjoy the divinest intimacy with my late lord of

348 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Verulam.’ Men, then, that they are — living without vulgarly
breathing — never speaking unless spoken to — books should be
appropriately apparelled. Their bindings should indicate and
distinguish their various characters. A crowd of illustrations
press upon us, but we must dismiss them at present with the
simple expression of the hope that our suggestion may not en-
tirely be thrown away.

That we have said this much concerning the mere outside of
the book whose title prefaces this notice, is sufficient evidence
of the fact that at the present day we deem any elaborate criti-
cism of Cooper’s “P.ed Rover” quite unnecessary and uncalled-
for. Long ago, and far inland, we read it in our uncritical days,
and enjoyed it as much as thousands of the rising generation
will, when supplied with such an entertaining volume in such

agreeable type.

A NOTE ON HERMAN MELVILLE’S TYPEE

NELSON F. ADKINS

T= scarcity of authentic information regarding Melville
and the publication of his works should give to the sub-
joined passage, written by a hitherto unrecorded friend of the
novelist, a certain interest in the eyes of Melville students. This
contemporary reference to Melville has been reprinted from Dr.
Thomas L. Nichols’s Forty Years of American Life, a work of
value alike to the social and literary historian for the light
thrown upon American life during the forty years preceding the
Civil War. This work, which was first published in London in
1864 in two volumes, was subsequently re-written by Dr.
Nichols, and issued in 1874 in one volume. The passage here
* Melville’s avoidance of the incorrect title, “Lord Bacon,” should be
noticed. In “The Paradise of Bachelors” he also writes of “Lord Veru-

lam,” but in the “Extracts” of Moby-Dick he fell into the error, prob-
ably during an unthoughtful moment while transcribing the quotation.

rYTt a

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 349

presented, which describes Dr. Nichols’s reading of the manu-
script of Typee, occurs on pages 344-346 of the first volume of
the 1864 edition. The account was re-written for the edition of
1874, but with no essential change in the facts.

Dr. Nichols, who was undoubtedly one of the first outside of
the Melville family to read Typee and to advise its publication,
was born in 1815 in Orford, New Hampshire — a country dis-
trict of New England where he lived as a boy. In time he en-
tered the medical profession, and travelled extensively in the
United States, becoming a keen and interested observer of Amer-
ican manners and customs. With the outbreak of the Civil War,
however, he no longer found it possible to write or speak so
freely as he desired. “The Government,” he later declared,
“became a military despotism; and when Mr. Seward ordered
that no citizen should leave the country without a passport, I
came to England. America was a prison, with Mr. Seward
for jailor.”* After his surreptitious flight, Dr. Nichols settled
in England, which became his home. His Forty Years of
American Life was written chiefly for English people whose
interest in America had been newly awakened by the events
of the war.

One day in New York I went into a lawyer’s office in Wall-
street — the office of a young and ardent politician,” whom I
had met often on the stump in the recent political campaign,
and who had just received the appointment of Secretary of Le-
gation to the American Embassy somewhere near the Court of
St. James’s.’ I congratulated and condoled with him on his ap-
pointment. It was a step upward and forward in the public life
to which he aspired; but he was poor, and the salary was two
thousand dollars — scarcely enough for his gloves and cab-hire.
The American Minister in London must be a man of fortune

1 Forty Years of American Life. (London, 1874), vi.

2 Gansevoort Melville (1816-1846), elder brother of Herman Mel-
ville, the novelist.

5 In reward for his campaign services as orator for the Democratic
party in 1844, Gansevoort Melville was appointed secretary to the Amer-

ican Legation in London. He died soon after entering upon the duties of
his office.

350 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

— the secretary is likely not to be, and gets through his four years
of service covered with debt, if not with glory.

While in the office,* as the American lawyer’s chambers are
called, a younger brother’ and partner told me they had a third
brother,* whom I had never seen. He had been a little wild,
and some years before had run away to sea, first to Liverpool’
and then in a whaler to the South Pacific.* This was nothing
strange — what followed was.

“He got home a few months ago,” said the young lawyer,
“and has been writing something about his adventures among
the cannibals. Would you like to look at it?”

I had a couple of hours to spare, and took the package of the
sailor boy’s writing. It was the manuscript of “Typee,” and
the runaway brother of my Wall-street friends was Herman
Melville.

I read “Typee” at one sitting, and had, of course, no doubt
of its success; but the better to assure it, I advised the diplomatic
brother to take a copy to London, and have it issued there simul-
taneously with its publication in New York.’ I felt sure that the

* Situated at number 10 Wall Street.

5 Allan Melville (b. 1823).

® Herman Melville, the novelist.

7 In 1837 Melville served as ship’s boy on a merchantman sailing be-
tween New York and Liverpool. Redburn (1849) was based on the ex-
periences of this voyage.

* In January, 1841, Melville shipped on the Acushnet, a whaler bound
for the South Seas. After fifteen months of hardship aboard the vessel,
Melville, with his friend, Richard Tobias Greene (Toby), deserted at
Nukuheva, an important island of the Marquesas. The two then made
their way to the Typee Valley, where for several months Melville was
retained by the natives as a captive, his companion having made his
escape a short time after their arrival. Typee, published in 1846, was
based on Melville’s experiences while a captive in the valley.

® The relationship of the first English edition of Typee to the first
American, and the method of bowdlerization in subsequent editions, still
remain in doubt. See, for example, a partial discussion of the problem by
Bernard DeVoto in the Saturday Review of Literature for November
24, 1928. For some facts regarding the English publication of the
work, see “The Family Correspondence of Herman Melville,” edited
by V. H. Palsits, in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library, xxxit
(July, 1929), 513-514.

MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 351

reviews of the English press would make its American success,
and I was not at all sure that the process could be reversed. It
was accordingly brought out by Mr. Murray, and made at once
a brilliant reputation for the author. It was one of the few in-
stances of the first work of an unknown literary adventurer
making for him a very desirable reputation. I met Herman
Melville often, after I read “Typee,” both before and subse-
quent to its publication. He was a simple-hearted, enthusiastic,
gentlemanly sailor, or sailorlike gentleman. His subsequent
works have been marked by certain eccentricities, but have, on
the whole, sustained the promise of his maiden production. He
married a daughter of Chief Justice Shaw,” and retired to a
rural residence among the hills of Western Massachusetts,”
where he carried on his farm and wrote a book every year until
1860, when, either getting short of materials or tired of life on
shore, he started off again on a whaling voyage around the
world,”* of which we shall doubtless hear something in due
season.

1 Melville married Elizabeth Knapp Shaw in 1847.

11 In 1850 Melville moved from New York to Pittsfield, Massachu-
setts, where he continued to live until 1863 in a house which he called
“Arrowhead.” It was here that he came to know Hawthorne, and wrote
a large part of Moby-Dick.

12 Dr. Nichols is here in error. In 1860 Melville made a brief trip to
San Francisco with his brother, Thomas Melville, who commanded the
Meteor, a clipper in the China trade.

BOOK REVIEWS $:

Province and Court Records of Maine, uu. 1653-1679.
Edited by Charles Thornton Libby. (Portland: Maine
Historical Society, 1931. Pp. xivu, 559. $10.00.)

History of York, Maine, 1. By Charles Edward Banks. (Bos-
ton: the Calkins Press, 1931. Pp. xvmi, 474.)

Here are two works of signal importance, each supplement-
ing the other, in the colonial history of Maine. In the Court
Records Mr. Libby successfully continues the plan begun in
a former volume, which was duly welcomed in this Review
(1, 2 [April, 1929], 331-334), and carries it into the period
when the Province fell under the domination of Massachu-
setts. In spite of an atmosphere of contention, which may
be regarded as a phase of the resounding struggle of Puritan
and Anglican, the records before us show that the contacts of
the frontier colony with a stronger government were not with-
out certain advantages, especially in defense against the In-
dians, in the improvement of highways, bridges, and ferries;
while any sort of home rule was probably better than that of
an absentee. The court itself under a Massachusetts com-
missioner, sitting with several associates elected in the county,
together with a resident recorder, maintained its strong local
character without any radical departure from former routine.
As to the reputed intolerance of this régime, excepting the
harshness shown to Quakers, there was a surprising lack of
oppression of non-conforming sects—no Roman Catholics
as yet being in evidence. Of persecution for heresy the rec-
ords contain nothing whatever, although there was much dis-
cipline in religious matters, with punishment for non-attend-
ance at public worship, and requirements for the upkeep of
meeting houses and preaching services. A few half-hearted
prosecutions for witchcraft, in one case certainly an acquittal,
suggest that public credulity on the subject was limited.
Marital cases abound, together with sexual delinquencies, pre-

352

BOOK REVIEWS 353

contract and the like, all the more perhaps because the laws
of Massachusetts differed from those previously operative in
the Province. As a reflection on the morals of the commu-
nity, “what would an observer infer if there were no prosecu-
tions for such offences?” is a characteristic comment of the
editor. The present observer finds himself shocked less by
the offences than by the cruel but not unusual punishments
that were calmly meted out. Amidst such an array of crimes,
torts, wills, inventories, and “the eternal pother” over the
liquor traffic, besides elementary problems of law and equity,
suffice it to say that whoever reads these pages with an eye
to realities will find a wealth of human detail at his disposal.

Colonel Banks, also, had many of the best qualities of a
local historian, including colonial lineage, a life-long interest
in his native town, and wide experience as an investigator.
With a steady pen he carries the narrative from the original
settlement, through Indian wars and a stern struggle for ex-
istence, the stubborn contest with Massachusetts, on finally
to the part played by the community in the Revolution. Al-
ways a contestant against Puritanism in whatever form, he
resents the intervention of the Bay Colony, with many an
expletive against the Puritan oligarchy and its “theological
fanatics,” regardless of any of its benefits. What lends life
and color to such a work is the author’s unusual familiarity
with the topography and landmarks of the neighborhood, of
which an abundance of illustration is given, as well as his in-
timate knowledge of the actors in every scene, their lineage
and migrations, whether at home or abroad. A chapter on
“the Evolution of a Tory,” the life of a loyalist among his
patriot neighbors, is strongly impressed upon the mind of the
reader. It is to be regretted that Colonel Banks did not pro-
vide for a better index to this first volume of the history
he unfortunately did not live to finish.

Mr. Libby is awake to the connection of local history with
the general influences of the New and the Old World; so,
also, was the late Colonel Banks. But it is just here that
slips occur, although it may be a venial error to attribute

354 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

“vast imperial designs” to the elusive Queen Elizabeth, or to
find a new grievance against George III in that he could not
speak English. It is commonly supposed that he spoke it far
too much. A more serious line of criticism is again and
again provoked not only in the pages before us, but by a cer-
tain succession of authors who claim in some degree the in-
fluence of feudalism in colonial life. There is unfortunately
a notion abroad that feudalism consisted of unrestrained lordly
power on the one side and complete servitude on the other.
Worse than that, as though all aristocracies were alike, we
hear of the feudal society of Virginia, of the plantations, and
so forth, until the term is in danger of losing its historic
meaning. In the face of such a confusion of words as well
as ideas, it may help to clear the air if we seek a few ac-
cepted definitions, or at any rate ask some seasonable ques-
tions as to feudal experiments in New England.

In the first place, it should be remembered that in its Eu-
ropean environment feudalism was a highly evolved, com-
plex condition of society, affecting all ranks whether of
lords, vassals, tenants, or villeins. It was not so much a
system of absolutism, or of servitude, as of mutual obliga-
tions and interlocking rights, of fixed duties and customary
law; in a word, the association on every side was properly
one of limited liability. So the best authorities have come
to regard the feudal contract (to find no better term) as
the active germ, not of modern autocracies but of constitu-
tional government. It is also true that even in the height
of the feudal age everything was by no means cast in a
common mold. Allodial lands and free villages were al-
ways to be found, as well as classes of people —like yeo-
men, townsmen, churchmen—who were neither lords nor
vassals. The common law, for instance, especially its land
law, was strongly grounded in feudalism; and yet the jury
was distinctly non-feudal, a grouping altogether contrary to
that of a court of peers with which it is often confused.
What makes an understanding of feudalism and its tenden-
cies of vital importance in modern history is that, perhaps

BOOK REVIEWS 355

more than any other social system, it has left everywhere
survivals of form and terminology.

To take the most outstanding unit of feudal government,
there was that division of sovereignty called the duchy or
county, the most complete example in England being the
County Palatine of Durham. This was the model on which
was formed in turn the Palatinate of Chester, that of Lan-
caster, and in lesser degree other liberties. The same sys-
tem was carried over-seas to the colonial proprietors, most
notably in the grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the County
or Province of Maine, conveying a large measure of regalian
rights such “as the Bishop of Durham now useth or enjoy-
eth.” It happened that at this very time the old Palatinate
was in process of dissolution. Its juristic independence being
penetrated by the king’s writs, appeals were carried to the
king’s court, and troops levied for the royal army. Now,
was the Proprietorship of Maine a reversion to the original
type, an imperium in imperio, as Mr. Libby seems to be con-
vinced, or did the grant simply continue a traditional form
that was susceptible of contemporary interpretation?

It would seem as though the document itself spoke clearly
enough on this point; for it expressly denotes the tenure as
by fealty instead of homage, as not im capite, or knight serv-
ice, but in free socage with a nominal rental. If that be
not a sufficient denial of the feudal theory, the patent fur-
ther reserves appeals from the colonial courts to those of
England, it retains powers under the Lord High Admiral,
and, what is most striking, defines the entire government as
“subordinate and subject” to the Lords Commissioners for
Foreign Plantations. Finally, although mention is made of
heirs and assigns, the so-called perpetuity of the grant proved
to be a fiction that was superseded in fifty years. A better
view of the whole matter finds that such a principality, how-
ever reminiscent of a medizval form, does not pertain ex-
clusively to feudalism, but under modification continues as
a pattern of government to this day. Change the beneficiary
from an individual to a corporate commonwealth, and the

356

same principle of differentiated sovereignty is essential every-
where to self-governing colonies, dominions, federations, and
free states.

Further, if the proprietor, according to feudal conceptions,
held a fief of the king, what of sub-infeudation? ‘The afore-
said patent to Gorges granted the right of creating counties,
towns, manors, courts baron, courts leet, etc. Although the
grant says nothing of knights’ fees, the subject is mentioned
in other documents, whereby it is contended that the Pro-
prietor had every right and intention of introducing knights’
fees as a means toward the “military subordination” of his
subjects. Now it would not in the least be surprising if in
a frontier province, containing a sparse population surrounded
by possible enemies, in the need of common defence, a real
reversion to feudal practices in this respect should have been
devised, especially with the example of Canada near by. As
W. B. Munro, the historian of the Seigniorial System in
Canada has abundantly shown, between the French colonies
and Europe of the tenth century there was much similarity,
while in France, the original home of feudalism, there were
to be seen many active survivals of the system— more than
in England. But even among the Canadians the experi-
ment of a renascent feudalism was hardly a success, while
to the English the idea was as foreign, in the pungent words
of our editor, “as the concepts of Buddha.” In England
knight service had passed out with the Hundred Years’ War,
and fiefs were barely known for a medley of pecuniary dues
that were rapidly falling to extinction. It would be a strange
fancy indeed for the old soldier to have taken up knights’
fees as an instrument of power and prestige! For the knight’s
fee, far from being a tenure at will, to be held or lost at
the “displeasure” of a lord, was, in fact, the securest hold-
ing known to feudal law, liable only to prescriptive duties,
forfeited only on violation of contract, and then properly de-
fensible in a court of peers. Alas, it seems to have been for-
gotten that no class of rights was better entrenched in Magna
Carta than these same tenures by military service.

The patent forecasts manors. Was there then a manorial

THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

BOOK REVIEWS 357

system, such as was extant in England at a later date than
other units of the feudal régime? Some of the landlords, it
is said, in the hope of solving their labor difficulties, “han-
kered for the flesh-pots of villeinage.” The question is not
merely as to large estates and great households. Just such
an establishment was maintained by the Gorges family, which
Colonel Banks cites as the only example in the District of
an operative manorial system. Here, we are told, the Dep-
uty Governor “held court” —a statement unmatched for its
ambiguity. For a seignorial system, according to every known
example, implies a court of lord and tenants, also demesne
land and tenements, common land, villeins, a village com-
munity, stated services, a mill, an oven; certainly some if
not every one of these features. To pick out a single inci-
dent like livery of seisin as “the essence of villeinage,” is the
familiar fallacy of taking a fractional part for the whole as
historical evidence, the shadow instead of the substance. It ©
is true that drastic immigration and emigration laws were cal-
culated to restrict the movements of the working people, but
from these it was a far cry to the hereditary tenancy required
of villeins. Our records abound in labor problems; inden-
tured servants running away, in one case a child three years
old being bound over for eighteen years, slaves bought and
sold, if not serviceable, into the West Indies. But as to
villeinage, the traces of which wherever it exists are unmis-
takable, not a. shadow crosses the page.

Altogether the case for neo-feudalism, knights’ fees, and
villeinage hangs by threads too few and slender. In fab-
ricating this hypothesis both authors are vague and elusive
when there is call for positive data. It is possible that some-
where there lies real evidence of policies and tendencies in
this direction. If so, whenever the facts are brought to light,
may the problem not be clouded by misconceptions as to what
historical feudalism actually was. Most of all what is needed
is not so much an argument for or against a theory, as a
substantial history of manorial and tenurial systems— not in
Maine alone but throughout New England.

J. F. Batpwin.

358 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Mr. Justice Holmes. By Benjamin N. Cardozo, Morris R.
Cohen, John Dewey, Felix Frankfurter (Ed.), Learned
Hand, Harold J. Laski, Walter Lippmann, Philip Littell,
Josef Redlich, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, John H. Wig-
more. (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc. 1931. Pp.
VIII, 241. $2.50.)

In a world of things debatable, one undebatable conclusion
is established by this book: some eminent Americans think
well of Mr. Justice Holmes. They think so well of him,
in fact, that what they have written of him over a number
of years is here collected as a tribute for his ninetieth birth-
day (March 8, 1931). He strides through these dedicated
pages as the embodiment of “sagacity, insight and acuteness;
courtesy, dignity and humor; wisdom, learning and upright-
ness.” As Felix Frankfurter goes on to say: “The world
does not generally deal so generously with its benefactors.”
The substance of the benefactions implied one does not fully
discern from this book; for its chapters were appropriately
determined by this present general occasion, as they had previ-
ously been separately determined by particular circumstances:
to eulogize more than to analyze. They vary in length
from Lippmann’s three-page sketch to Frankfurter’s more crit-
ical seventy-odd pages, and in content from an impression
of Holmes’s house to an appreciation of the body of his ju-
dicial opinions. But through them all run a dignity of style
and a flavor of high admiration which, in the one instance,
must be borrowed from the subject and, in the other, en-
large the subject to the loftiness of an cidolon. The reviewer
surrenders consciously to the common attempt to magnify
the subject rather than to evaluate the diverse predicates. The
man and judge who emerges from these pages is character-
ized by honesty, by courage, and by a tragic sense of life.

The honesty praised in one way or another by all the es-
sayists is not merely or even primarily that of the copy-book
maxims. It is that rarer and finer inner quality of merci-
less self-evaluation. Here is a judge, if we may believe his

BOOK REVIEWS 359

friends, who knows that he is human, who knows that to
be human means to have prejudices, who knows what his
prejudices are, and who knows that they can not be named
so nobly as legitimately to claim differential significance in
appraising public policy. It is an honesty whose technique
is unrelenting skepticism and whose final fruit is restraint of
both animal and moral urgencies in the name of justice. The
last word in honesty is a complete deflation of the pretences
of self without paralysis of faith in the efficacy of functional
selfhood. Such honesty is pure modesty without loss of pride.

The courage here praised is not that of the battlefield,
though it has the wounds of Civil War as its personal back-
ground and a belief in the necessity of struggle in the career
of both truth and justice as its foreground. It is rather the
willingness of a self with acknowledged preferences to ac-
knowledge as of equal right the prejudices of others. The
normal human response to the prejudices of others as they
gravitate toward conduct, is fear in feeling and repression in
action. The Holmes eidolon here materialized deprecates
this response in other judges, and defends for groups of men
— whether labor unions in relation to states or states in re-
lation to the Federal Government —the right to try out
their prejudices subject only to the correction of their own
reason in the light of consequences alone. The Constitu-
tion emerges from such a view as a charter to safeguard the
right of experiment, and the Supreme Court appears finally
as a helper in the permanent conduct of experimentation.
Moreover, we have here as courage the audacity to believe
helpful in experimentation an intelligence issuing from no
higher ancestry than the animal sagacity gleaned from prior
projects.

The honesty to understand self and the courage to free
the field of action for the prejudices of others is, moreover,
suffused here by a tragic glow. Indeed, the virtues of hon-
esty and of courage thus conceived may be said to eventuate

360 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

in a sense of tragedy. For the human animal to acknowl-
edge that there is no final truth, no unchanging justice, no
absolute morality has its own darker side. Reason itself never
is but is merely becoming; and there is no final rest for the
mind, no assured security for the body, no lasting stability
for property. More tragic than the finality of flux, however,
is the waste thereof. Truth has its casualties no less than
war its dead. But this is the law of social growth, and not
even legal logic can conceal beneath the form of justice the
victims of competition. If the fate of personal interests is
determined in no nice way by meeting front on social forces,
more dramatically still does the social world conceived as a
whole confront the enigma of the cosmos with an agnosti-
cism that is tragically humble or an affirmation that is tragi-

cally bold.

It is clear, however, that the virtue of courage lingers long-
est in reflecting upon the subject of this volume — this “Ro-
man Stoic,” as Professor Laski has well described him. But
it is the courage of resolution, not of despair. ‘Though logic
exists for life and though law as the logic of social relations
exists for the sake of men, Holmes, as judge, has been more
concerned to defend the forms under which men can operate
freely than to inspect and value the conduct with which they
elect to fill in the forms. Likewise, as man and philosopher,
he has unassailably fortified courage by the discovery that
the forms of thought can, in a pinch, compensate for loss of
content and through contemplation for the tragedy of life
no less than for the finality of death. To the glory of Amer-
ica he exemplifies in high action the final faith of Santayana’s
paradoxical query — “after life is done, and the world is gone
up in smoke, what realities may the spirit of man boast to
have embraced without illusion, save the very forms of these
illusions by which he has been deceived?”

T. V. Smrru.

BOOK REVIEWS 361

Blaine of Maine: His Life and Times. By Charles Edward
Russell. (New York: The Cosmopolitan Book Corpora-
tion. 1931. Pp. 446. $5.00.)

“When I was done with the writing of the chapters in
Blaine of Maine that deal with the Reconstruction period,
I was aware that the facts I had cited would probably arouse
the fury of three elements among my fellow-citizens.” So
the publishers quote Mr. Russell in a circular sent out to
the college trade. These three elements the author pic-
turesquely describes as the “Intellectual Limpets,” the “Snobs,”
and the “Troglodytes.” Neither Mr. Russell nor his pub-
lishers explain why they take such obvious pride in stirring
the fury of these classes, whose opinions, good or bad, would
ordinarily carry little weight. However, the producers of
this work evidently regard it as a contribution to the con-
troversial literature of the day, and it seems only fair to
attempt a critical analysis on this ground.

In general, Blaine of Maine does not measure up to the
standard of good controversial writing. ‘There is nothing
new or recondite in the factual material, nor is there any-
thing unusual or startling in the manner of presentation.
Mistakes appear, both in facts and in generalization, but these
blunders are not of the sort to arouse real controversy. Far
from being novel or original, the book abounds in old stuff.

Mr. Russell devotes considerable space to a survey of
Slavery, and of the Abolition Movement. This long dis-
cussion is done in the best manner of Garrison and Phillips.
He gives evidence of as much moral earnestness in his treat-
ment of the subjects as they did. When they wrote, par-
ticularly before 1860, their words did arouse controversy;
now the expenditure of so much emotionalism on a dead issue
seems a bit academic. And entirely apart from this aspect
of the matter, one wonders why so much of this needs to
be included in a life of Blaine. He would have been the
last man in the country to throw away his political pros-
pects in the abolitionist crusade.

With the problem of slavery settled, Mr. Russell comes

362 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

somewhat closer to Blaine’s career in a survey of Recon-
struction. Possibly limpets and troglodytes might be stirred
by these pages; even so, the average reader will be left a bit
cold. The scanty references to Lincoln’s policy might be
regarded as proof of the author’s lack of mastery of the field,
but they are proof of little else. In analysing the Congres-
sional Plan, the author merely states once more the position
of the Radical Republicans. But serious-minded scholars have
added much to the general knowledge and understanding of
this period, so much that the partisan views of B. F. Butler
and Thaddeus Stevens are no longer regarded as entirely
sound. This new evidence, however, finds no place in Mr.
Russell’s pages.

Naturally Blaine’s ventures into the world of business re-
ceive considerable attention, and the reader may renew his
acquaintance with the Credit Mobilier, the Little Rock and
Fort Smith Railroad, and the inevitable Mulligan Letters.
Here the treatment is picturesque and lively, but by no means
critical or discriminating.

In sharp contrast with these matters of Slavery, Recon-
struction, and questionable business ventures, which receive
extended treatment, Blaine’s work as Secretary of State under
two presidents is compressed into a few pages, but even these
few provide opportunities for some poorly-supported gen-
eralizations, such as, for example, the unqualified statement
that the United States had been led by the nose into the
Clayton Bulwer Treaty. If foreign affairs receive little at-
tention, the general questions of politics and party develop-
ment receive even less. If Blaine left any mark on the his-
tory of his time, apart from his foreign policy, it must have
been in politics, but the reader will hunt in vain for any
illuminating analysis of the changing political picture of the
period. On the whole, one may be permitted to express the
hope that the intellectual limpets and the troglodytes, who
are aroused to fury over this volume, may never venture far
into the fields of history; they would have apoplexy on learn-
ing the sad fate of Mary, Queen of Scots.

RatpH Votney Har.ow.

BOOK REVIEWS 363

Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, Con-
tinental Army. Volume 1, 1778-1779. Collections of the
New Hampshire Historical Society, x1v. Edited by Otis G.
Hammond. (Concord, New Hampshire: New Hampshire
Historical Society. 1931. Pp. xxvi, 577. $5.00.)

The reader’s interest in this, the second, volume of the
Sullivan Papers centers at once upon the Rhode Island Cam-
paign of 1778, of which General Sullivan was in immediate
command. Although Channing and other recent historians
have taken the position that the New Hampshirite was almost
uniformly unfortunate rather than bungling or culpable, there
lingers in the mind of the general reader an impression that
Sullivan ought to have done better than he did, especially in
the siege of Newport.

In his admirable preface Major Hammond traces to its
source the prejudice against Sullivan, and refutes point by
point the slurs cast by George Bancroft. As Bancroft did
not give documentary evidence to support his comments and
charges, and as Major Hammond puts his finger on this and
that passage in the present volume with deadly precision, the
laurels in the controversy go entirely to him. The reader,
made skeptical by so complete a victory, scrutinizes the papers
to see if the zealous defender of Sullivan has not sometimes
claimed too much. In only one instance, if in any, does he
appear to have done so. Bancroft asserted that “Sullivan,
on the morning of the ninth [of August], without notice to
d’Estaing, crossed with his troops from the side of Tiverton.”
Major Hammond maintains that his advancing without notice
“is disproved in Gen. Sullivan’s letter to Henry Laurens,”
and cites the document. To the unbiassed reader the proof is
not conclusive, for in that letter Sullivan said “I immediately
threw the whole Army Across and Sent word to the Count
to Land his men and Join us, but before the message could
reach him and before our army was Compleatly over a Brit-
ish Fleet of twenty Nine Sail appeared Standing for Newport
Close in with Seconnet Point.” Sullivan moved a day ahead
of the time he and the French commander had agreed upon

364 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

for a joint attack. The question is: under such circumstances
is “notice” notice, especially when it is sent too late to be
of use?

None of the papers is more interesting than General
Greene’s letter of August 23 in answer to Sullivan’s request
for his advice at a critical juncture in the campaign. Should
the American army attack the enemy or should it retreat to
the north end of the island? Sullivan asked each of his prin-
cipal officers for his opinion. Four were for moving for-
ward, four were for retreat, and one was for staying where
they were! Of them all Nathanael Greene stands out as the
clearest thinker, the born strategist, the master mind in mili-
tary affairs. Sullivan was indeed fortunate in having as his
right-hand man one whose ability was surpassed only by his
loyalty to his chief.

Probably the printer, rather than the editor, is responsible
for spelling Greene’s first name Nathaniel instead of Na-
thanael — the latter being the peculiar orthography which the
Quaker general seems to have preferred. The frequent ref-
erences to an 1896 edition of Bancroft are a bit disturbing,
too, to one who can not find that there is an edition of that
year. But these are minor details. In general Major Ham-
mond has won his case, and has placed a valuable collection
of papers at the disposal of students of American history.

LawRENCE SHAW Mayo.

Leonard Bacon: a Statesman in the Church. By Theodore
Davenport Bacon. Edited by Benjamin W. Bacon. (New
Haven: Yale University Press. 1931. Pp. xv, 563. $5.00.)

This large and well-printed volume does ample justice to
its subject; it is a credit both to author and publisher. Mr.
Bacon shows an intimate knowledge of men and movements
in New England over a period of almost a century (1770-
1870), and he ably relates the life and service of a man of
whom it is a pleasure and an inspiration to know.

BOOK REVIEWS

365

Leonard Bacon was the outstanding member of a family
which has distinguished itself for several generations in aca-
demic, clerical, and public life—a family which has left a
marked influence on New England and Japan. His father,
David Bacon, as this volume most interestingly relates, left
a carpenter shop to study for the Christian ministry, became
a missionary to the Indians at Mackinac and Detroit (where
his son, Leonard, was born in 1802), and then a pioneer
settler near Cleveland, in the Western Reserve. Courageous,
indefatigable, and unsparing of himself, David Bacon died
worn out at forty-seven.

At the age of ten Leonard went to live with his uncle at
Hartford, and thenceforth resided in New England. In Yale
College and Andover Theological Seminary he showed marked
ability in thoughtful discussion and skill in writing. During
an extra year at Andover he received a call to the Center
Church of New Haven. This was a fine compliment to the
youth, offered him a great opportunity, and put him on his
mettle. Although fearful at times that he would not prove
equal to the task, his ability and consecration were proved
by the fact that he remained pastor of the Center Church
for fifty-seven years; and in all these years that Church
had the first place in his affections.

Church and parish did not absorb all Dr. Bacon’s powers.
He became the first editor-in-chief of the Independent and
made it the most influential religious journal in the country.
Slavery was one of the subjects which engaged all his powers.
He believed that the Christian way to solve this problem
was to preach the brotherhood of master and slave like St.
Paul, and thus undermine the system. He became active
in the colonization of Liberia, and so brought down upon
himself the vituperative invective of Garrison. Bacon’s arti-
cles helped Lincoln to clarify his own mind on slavery and
prepared public opinion for Emancipation, but in the evil
days of Reconstruction he vainly advocated mercy and mod-
eration.

Moderation, humaneness, reasonableness — these were char-
acteristics of Dr. Bacon in all the many subjects that he

366 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

touched. He was an advocate of temperance, but not of
prohibition, although he himself was a total abstainer. On
one great occasion he prevented the Congregational Churches
in council session from acting on certain resolutions which
were intended to identify them with prohibition. No such
wise man appeared in recent years to save these churches
from themselves a second time. When the Roman Catholics
in New Haven objected to Bible reading in the public schools,
Dr. Bacon stood for granting them their rights, for he was
a firm believer in the right and blessing of religious liberty.

Dr. Bacon was also a stateciaan in the Church. A con-
vinced Congregationalist, he believed in full freedom and
democracy in all church affairs, and no man in the Con-
gregational Churches did more for that cause than he. Partly
through his efforts, the Congregational Churches in Con-
necticut were freed from their entangling alliance with the
Presbyterian Church, and purified of their Presbyterian re-
mainders. While he worked hard to organize a Nationai
Congregational body, he never allowed this body or any other
body to curtail the freedom of the local Church. His frank-
ness, fairness, wisdom, and courage gave him time and again,
on great critical occasions, positions of power and leadership.
Moral principles took his mind captive, and strangely enough
he was obliged to fight for these in the very bodies created
and supported by the Congregational Churches. His mind
was open for new truth and what is more, welcomed it;
moreover, he believed in freedom of religious thought, the
right to differ, and the duty to progress. And so he was a
friend and defender of Bushnall.

After leaving the pastorate, Dr. Bacon became in his old
age an acting professor in the Yale Divinity School, then in
the midst of a financial crisis. ‘There he taught theology,
ecclesiastical polity, and American Church History. Deeply
learned as well as devoted to Congregational history and
polity, his work on The Genesis of the New England Churches
is still of value. Before his death he had won the respect
and admiration of men of all parties, creeds, and Churches.
Danret Evans.

BOOK REVIEWS 367

Land Ho! 1620. A Seaman’s Story of the Mayflower, her
Construction, her Navigation, and her first Landfall. By
W. Sears Nickerson. Illustrated. (Boston: Houghton Mif-
flin Company. 1931. Pp. 155, x1x, $5.00.)

The early New England navigators have long wanted
some horny-handed Hakluyt to study their voyages through
a seaman’s glass. Hitherto these meagre, concise narratives
have mostly been studied by landlubbers in libraries, with
the aid of modern charts; hence some ludicrous mistakes
have been made; for the best of charts can not begin to rep-
resent what a coast looks like to a mariner approaching it
on the deck of a ship. Captain Nickerson, one of the dwin-
dling number who learned their seamanship on American
square-riggers, has done this for the Mayflower, and done it
well, although he takes his time about getting to it. The
subject is introduced by a lurid description of sunrise at sea.
Next we have an elaborate description of the sainted ship
herself, based on Mr. R. C. Anderson’s Mayflower model in
Pilgrim Hall, and his article in the Mariner’s Mirror, xu
(not 1). The photograph of this model used as frontispiece
is not clear, and is incorrectly labelled “Model of the May-
flower.” ‘That may be what the public thinks it is, but Mr.
Anderson has always declared that his beautiful example of
the ship modeller’s art is not a model of the Mayflower, of
which we know nothing certain except her tonnage; but of
a vessel measuring nearly the same burthen, whose specifi-
cations are known. Captain Nickerson’s real contribution
here is a calculation, with plans, of how the hundred passengers
were stowed.

In the third chapter on “The Back Side of Cape Cod,”
the Captain reaches soundings. The description is based on
his first-hand knowledge, on memories of the oldest inhab-
itants, and on a careful study of ancient charts and voyages.
To the reviewer his analysis of the changes since the days
of Gosnold and Christopher Jones, seems reasonable and con-
vincing. In the fourth chapter, we reach the heart of the
book: a careful tracing of the Mayflower’s course from the

368 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

time of her landfall on November 9, to the “dangerous
shoulds” and “roring breakers” on the broken part of Pollack
Rip, and back around the Cape to Provincetown Harbor,
“wher they ridd in saftie.” Again, the Captain’s interpreta-
tion seems reasonable; but considering that a few lines in
the Bradford Journal and History are all the data we possess,
it must be remembered that the course laid down on the chart
is hypothetical.

Let us hope that Captain Nickerson has shown the way to
others. No voyage to New England equals that of the May-
flower for sentimental interest, but there are many fair-
weather seamen who would welcome new editions of the
early seventeenth-century voyages, described from the quarter-
deck point of view.

S. E. Morison.

Philenia: The Life and Works of Sarah Wentworth Morton,
1759-1846. By Emily Pendleton and Milton Ellis.
(Orono, Maine: The University Press. 1931. Pp. 122.
$1.00.)

Plain Sarah Apthorp was so proud of her mother’s family
that when she married she dropped the Apthorp and called
herself Sarah Wentworth Morton. Under that name she
gained her little reputation as a poetess. Sometime after her
death she also received recognition as the first American
novelist. ‘This would have been all right, only it was not true.

Born to wealth and position in 1759, with a colonial lieu-
tenant-governor in her lineage, Mrs. Morton was a talented
lady whose promise might have amounted to more than it
did had she not been so protected by her cultured environment.
As it was, she raised her family, forgave her lusty and erring
husband, buried her sister in a suicide’s grave, wrote poetry
and prose in her leisure moments, entertained the Jiterati of
her day, designed her own home, and eventually died in 1846,

BOOK REVIEWS 369

IS nearly forgotten in the city where once she had been one
k of the most cultured and best known citizens.
3 Sarah was attractive, even beautiful, if the Stuart portrait
- is to be believed. She was somewhat of a snob, generally
n provincial in her outlook, and in her own heart a Royalist
q with nostalgic feelings for the society of London. Histori-
t cally she bridged the gap between Anne Bradstreet and the
sentimental Mrs. Sigourney. And now, at last, her biog-
0 raphy has been printed: an unattractive book of 122 prosy
- pages.
- It is more as a mirror of Boston culture than as a literary
. figure that Mrs. Morton is important. She was of that polite

- society which formed the Sans Souci club on State Street
which annoyed the democracy with its half-hearted attempts
to imitate gay English cousins by mild gambling and danc-
ing until midnight. Her verses appeared in the Columbia
Centinel, the Massachusetts Magazine and others, under the
pseudonyms of “Constantia” and “Philenia.” They were
cumbersome with literary and classical allusions, as befit the
, time; they were patriotic, sentimental, and unreal. Too often
they were tributes to friends; otherwise they were on themes
borrowed from other sources or they were about historical
events in the metropolis of the New World.
Sarah Apthorp married Perez Morton, the young lawyer
who became Speaker of the House and Attorney-General of
Massachusetts. In a contemporary lampoon the Mortons
were, perhaps unjustly, called Mr. and Mrs. Importance.
Perez was a hot-blooded fellow who nearly ruined his own
career not long after his marriage by seducing Sarah’s charm-
ing sister, Fanny. She had, as a result, a child which was
taken to Weston to be brought up. Stricken with remorse,
she took poison, after having received the forgiveness of her
sister and heard Perez’s denial of responsibility. The news-
papers made much of this scandal, with the threatened duel
that did not quite come off, but they may have been more
inspired by political motives than moral indignation.

Not long after the suicide of Fanny there appeared “The
Power of Sympathy,” undoubtedly from the pen of William

370 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Hill Brown, a young neighbor of the Mortons. It was not
signed. Its theme was the Morton-Apthorp love affair and
another similar case which had occurred near Boston. The
Apthorps tried to suppress the novel, but failing in this they
did the next best thing and bought all the copies they could
find and burnt them. After Mrs. Morton’s death the legend
grew that she herself had been the author of the book. The
authors of this biography set forth the later version and at-
tribute it to Brown. From their evidence, based on thorough
research of all the available material, there seems to be no
need for further doubt as to the real authorship. Mrs. Morton
would have had no reason so to exploit her own family
troubles.

Mrs. Morton’s first long poem was “Ouabi, or the Virtues
of Nature.” This sentimental Indian love story was later
dramatized in London. Perhaps her best known verses were
“African Chief,” immortalized by Whittier’s partial quota-
tion in “Snow Bound.” Another long poem was the am-
bitious failure “Beacon Hill,” a patriotic version of early
Boston history. A fourth was “The Virtues of Society.” All
were accomplished versifying and little else. The only book
which Mrs. Morton published under her own name was the
miscellany called My Mind and Its Thoughts, in Sketches,
Fragments, and Essays.

As a friend of Joseph Dennie and Robert Treat Paine, Jr.,
as entertainer of many prominent people of her day, and per-
haps because she designed her own house in Dorchester after
instructions by Bulfinch, Mrs. Morton may claim a little fur-
ther distinction. She outlived her husband and her friends,
and died in her home town of Braintree in 1846 after a
full life. When she died, by the dictation of her last will,
she gathered her children into her granite tomb in King’s
Chapel, where undoubtedly the three now sleep blissfully
unaware that they all might continue to be forgotten were
it not for two research workers who have prepared a quite
unliterary account of Sarah Wentworth Morton’s romantic

career.

Kart SCHRIFTGIESSER.

BOOK REVIEWS 371

My United States. By Frederic J. Stimson (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1931. Pp. 478. Portrait. $3.50.)

When the wearied author of Ecclesiastes wrote that of mak-
ing many books there was no end, he might well have re-
ferred to the writing of memoirs after a great upheaval. The
aftermath of the World War is like that of the Napoleonic
Era. Every one who took part in it confirms the truth in
Ecclesiastes. Yet there is a fascination in the story of any
life, particularly when it is told by him who lived it. When
one is wearied with the formal tale of history, he still turns
eagerly to hear what the actor on the scene says about it.
Aside from the self-analytical type such as Rousseau, every
writer of memoirs can tell us something of at least two
things: the drama in which he played a part, and the time
in which he lived.

This is so with Mr. Stimson’s book. The World War gave .
him an unexpected part for some years, and the Boston which
was his home anchorage is still a fair field for description.
He himself has singularly good gifts for a writer of memoirs.
A graduate of Harvard in the seventies, a member of its
teaching force and a partner of its President, he travelled
much and made many contacts. He is many-sided. A writer
of novels which had reasonable success and of at least one
short story among the best of its time, he compiled digests
of law which require dull accuracy, and yet found time to
write a legal- article on “Trusts,” before that subject became
of burning interest, which went far to put out of print the
number of the Harvard Law Review in which it appeared.
And he possesses an observing and penetrating mind, and
abundant frankness with which to speak it.

On the great stage of the World War his part might have
been played in a small way far off from the main conflict,
since during that period he was the Ambassador of his coun-
try in Argentina. But fate was very kind to him. In the
ever-shifting drama of the War, the Teutonic mentality of
his German colleague brought Argentina into the spotlight

372 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

in most dramatic fashion. “Sinking without a trace,” and
dubbing Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs a “notori-
ous ass,” put the unfortunate Luxburg, the German Minister
to Argentina, in the vanguard of the stupid, and centred the
attention of the flashlight upon Argentina in a way of which
Mr. Stimson takes full advantage. ‘The history of those days
portrayed as it is by “J. S. of Dale” loses nothing in the
telling, and the frankness of the author in describing his ad-
ventures with the State Department at Washington, cer-
tainly fulfills what he says is the object of his book, namely
to amuse. It was in the days of Bryan and the “deserving
Democrats,” and the amusement is only heightened by the
tale of the bourgeois visit of Mr. McAdoo to South Amer-
ica, where the secret of the pending advent of our country
into the war, known only by confidential despatches from
Washington added to the natural gaucherie of the party and
pretty well upset the patronizing good-fellowship the trip
was supposed to engender.

The most interesting part, however, of these memoirs is
the light they throw — sometimes consciously, and often un-
consciously — upon the Boston in which he lived. He was
singularly well-fitted to observe this community. Socially
so situated as to see it at its best, a fact dwelt upon perhaps
a little consciously, he could yet look at it in detached fash-
ion and he has a broadness of view and freshness of touch
that bring out both its lights and — still more important — its
shadows. He takes, perhaps, a good while to grow up. His
college days, after all, interestingly reminiscent to one who
has gone through them, do not play so large a part as after-
wards. Cambridge of the seventies, while important to those
of the seventies who went through it, is only one phase in a
rather narrow circle. His own four years are deeply in-
teresting to every college graduate. But the Boston of a
later period is well shown up. While Mr. Stimson rather
deprecatingly says his object is only to amuse, some of his
observations upon the Boston of his time and of ours go to

BOOK REVIEWS 373

the heart of things. Thus his observation on the effect of
the spendthrift trust upon Boston’s business community is well
worthy of thought. Under the Massachusetts decisions the
testator might tie up his property for the benefit of his chil-
dren, in such a way that it is beyond the reach of creditors,
and the effect of this upon the character of the beneficiary
is well pointed out. Mr. Stimson might well have gone
further. The tying up of money in trust, even if not of the
spendthrift variety, is becoming more and more a problem
in a great urban community, and the accumulation of such
trust property in the hands of great corporations, trust com-
panies, and Federal banks, is bringing about the same appre-
hension which led our English forbears to forbid monopoly.

He remarks that Massachusetts will not show the way to
the perfect state until Protestant, Catholic, Irish, and Yankee,
and the other nationalities get together. Again it is an il-
luminating flash. The truth is that the best thing for Bos-
ton would be to have all the most exclusive clubs and or-
ganizations take in the best of every race of strangers within
the gates, so that the community, if it must divide at all,
should divide on horizontal lines of merit and not vertical
lines of race. Otherwise, a society becomes merely parochial.
Yet Boston connotes different things in different minds, and
there are many Bostons. The one with which Mr. Stimson,
so far as appears in his book, was not familiar, was the po-
litical Boston in its municipal government, about which per-
haps the least said the better in a book designed to amuse.

Equally pregnant are his remarks about the Port of Bos-
ton. He points out with bluntness the failure of its citizens
to make use of its manifest advantages, and deplores the lack
of an enlightened public self-interest, joined with big vision
and unity of action. His remedy is very simple, believing
as he does that the trouble is largely psychological consisting
in a state of mind and a mode of action, and his advice is
for Boston to assert itself. Perhaps he is not quite sympa-
thetic enough with its efforts in that direction. And it would

374 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

be interesting to read his comments on the present struggle
between the trunk lines controlled in New York which are
striving to reach Boston, and a New England system ready
to bargain with different lines on its border giving access to
the West.

The book suffers from a plethora of incidents. His friead,
Barrett Wendell, a master of incisive criticism, as those who
were under him at Cambridge still remember, would have
advised him to condense it more, and to subordinate his in-
cidents. The style is easy and conversational, but it wearies
at times with his excessive use of parenthesis. Parentheses
are at best breathless hurdles. When Mr. Stimson forgets
the parenthesis and writes in simple movement, as he does
with his particularly good description of the way in which
he got out of Germany at the beginning of the War, the
style is much more attractive. The title itself is a bit strained.

Yet after all, these are details. As the comments of a
keen, fearless mind on his own contemporary community,
the book has more than interest — it has well-deserved merit.
Mr. Stimson is very all-around. He recognizes the value
of manners and tastes, and yet he realizes that these may be
nothing but veneer. So when he sees real flesh and blood
he is drawn to it. As he can thus balance people, so he can
balance things. At heart he is in sympathy with his com-
munity and what is more, with his broader country, and
when he deals in wounds, they are the wounds of a friend.
It is dangerous to predict literary fame — almost as much so
as the end of financial depression. Yet after this generation
has gone, and the history of the World War as it will ap-
pear to those coming after may be at times a bit wearisome
and hard to grasp in its tremendous breadth, the reader of
that time may well turn to this book for a good picture of
the days which the writer saw, and of this community, of
which he was a part. Whatever may be the size of the
glass, it is a just mirror of his age.

Gerorce Reap NutTrer.

BOOK REVIEWS 375

American Interpretation of Natural Law: A Study in the
History of Political Thought. By Benjamin Fletcher
Wright, Jr. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Uni-
versity Press. 1931. Pp. x, 360. $3.50.)

Professor Wright has endeavored to fill one of the gaps
in the array of detailed studies which must be filled before
there can be a definitive history of American political thought.
The influence of the concept of natural law has been im-
mense all over the world, but in few countries has the basic
idea been as long lived, and as hardy, as in the United States.
There it has been not a juristic concept as much as a bundle
of rationalized political prejudices or principles, the natural
rights guaranteed by the various bills of rights or by the zealous
care of the courts, political principles assumed to be laid down
by “Nature and Nature’s God” and easily discoverable by
candid observers.

Professor Wright does not show, no doubt from want of
material, that the writers and preachers and politicians of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were much occupied with
natural law, except as a background for their dogma of nat-
ural rights. ‘There is thus bred in the casual reader a dan-
gerous illusion that natural rights and natural law are the
same thing and, from that, it is an easy step to failure to con-
ceive systems of natural law that have little to do with nat-
ural rights in the common use of the term. There is a mo-
ment when it seems that Professor Wright is hinting that
slavery could not be defended by a believer in natural law,
and that recourse had to be had to empirical justification or
to the Scriptures. Of course, Professor Wright later makes
it quite clear that such is not the case, and in the discussion
of Calhoun, we are shown how completely the theory of nat-
ural law can be used to justify the peculiar institution. If a
slave economy was necessary for a good society, then that
society was slavery’s final cause and justification. But the
broad Aristotelian conceptions of Calhoun were rare. What
was commoner was the use of selected natural rights to jus-
tify attacks on social and political institutions, such as limited

376 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

franchise and slavery. From the days of Gouverneur Morris,
through the Virginia Convention of 1829 to the “higher law”
of Seward and Sumner, the fragmentary theory of natural
rights lived on, a polemical weapon rather than a system of
political or legal philosophy. It was, and is, an imperfect
life for so old and respectable a political doctrine, but at least
it is life and not the complete extinction of English theory
and practice.

The view of natural law as something behind and above
the commands of the sovereign, as a divinely ordained or self-
evident system of right overruling mere man-made law, has
taken refuge in the courts, where it disguises itself as “due
process,” “obligation of a contract,” and, as far as a layman
dare speak, as the “rule of reason” under the commerce clause.
Even if orthodox lawyers can not see it, this is our old friend,
“natural law” and is a most horrid abuse to any one brought
up in strict English orthodoxy —as was this reviewer. The
English lawyer and even the English political scientist, be
he never so pluralistic, abhor the vacuum created by such re-
served areas of constitutional no man’s land. Rather, as in
the Statute of Westminster (1931), create half a dozen com-
plete sovereignties, than create American twilight zones, rather
endure all inelegancies than achieve symmetry at the cost of
legislative supremacy —somewhere. Yet lawyers are lawyers
everywhere, and the temptation to add to the jurisdiction of
the court is irresistible. Some of the recent English decisions
on the doctrine of ultra vires in local government cases, have
been oddly reminiscent of American rulings, and local au-
thorities have had their policies replaced by those of judges
in ways as startling as the Lochner Case. If all the English
horror of judicial review can not keep implied higher stand-
ards out of English courts, can we wonder that in America,
natural law in political and legal institutions has, in all prob-
ability, long life before it?

Professor Wright moves among his authors with very great
skill and with a due sense of their relative importance and
interest, and he has notably illustrated a leading motive in

ee Ce le

BOOK REVIEWS 377

American political theory and history. He has not always
been mindful of the necessity of underlining all his points
for the weaker brethren, and he has put an “r” into Amistad
(171), and “e” into Mably (222), but these tiny blemishes
can hardly be said to detract from the value of a solid piece
of work.

D. W. Brocan.

Emerson Today. By Bliss Perry. (Princeton, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press. 1931. Pp. v, 141. $2.00.)

During the years that Professor Bliss Perry lectured at
Harvard on Emerson, he never found time to set down his
interpretation in book form. He wrote two essays on Em-
erson (in The Praise of Folly and Other Papers), and se-
lected and edited Emerson’s essays and journals, but never
painted a full length portrait of the man. Lovers of Em-
erson regretted this all the more because of Professor Perry’s
unique personal acquaintance with what may be called Em-
erson’s literary personality—as expressed not only in his
works, and in the interpretations of him by other writers;
but also in the personal reminiscences and anecdotes of him
preserved by the Emerson family, and by their many friends.
Professor Perry is probably more intimately acquainted with
this literary personality than any man living. And so, when
he recently found opportunity to write down his interpreta-
tion of Emerson, the portrait resulting expressed many fea-
tures uniquely interesting to modern readers.

Professor Perry’s book combines the richly human interpre-
tation long familiar to his students, with comments on the
recent scholarly and critical books about Emerson, and the
revaluation of him resulting from this approach. First the
author sketches the history of Emerson’s reputation. Then
he reconstructs his literary personality — first as Yankee, and
then as mystic. These chapters contain the wealth of per-

378 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

sonal anecdote and illustration which most distinguishes Pro-
fessor Perry’s approach. Finally, he faces the problem of
Emerson’s significance to the modern world (apparently so
unlike the Concord of a century ago), and defines the con-
temporary importance of Emerson with insight and candor.

Professor Perry’s book opens (as his lectures often have
done in the past), with the parable of the asymmetry of Em-
erson’s face. “Seen from one side, it was the face of a
Yankee . . . from the other side, it was the face of a dreamer.”
He goes on to describe both aspects of the face. But it is sig-
nificant that for his frontispiece he has chosen a new (and
strikingly beautiful) portrait of Emerson, showing the face
in profile, so that only the left side of it is seen. In this
new portrait the eye seems to twinkle with an understanding
scrutiny, the mouth to smile with a kindly humor, and all
the lines of the face to express an alert interest in the affairs
of the world about him. In other words, this new portrait
shows only one side of Emerson’s face—the Yankee, or hu-
man side. The brooding, inexpressive mystic does not ap-
pear. And this fact suggests a minor criticism: namely, that
Professor Perry has unconsciously described Emerson the
friend and neighbor, with more sympathy than he has de-
scribed Emerson the mystic. Indeed, he says: “I confess
that I sometimes find Emerson in his Persian singing robes
a trifle theatrical” (80). And sometimes he frankly con-
demns the unsocial Emerson, the “enraptured” poet, the for-
eign dreamer. But not always. More often he offers a
sympathetic interpretation of the whole man, as when he
makes the whimsical comparison of Emerson to “the heathen
Chinee” of Bret Harte’s poem (103), who somehow knew
the game of life better than did his worldly opponents. Pas-
sages like this abound.

The book as a whole offers the best informal and sympa-
thetic picture of the literary personality of Emerson that has
appeared in modern times. It appeals to the student and
to the general reader, alike.

Freperic I. Carpenter.

BOOK REVIEWS 379

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society: txm,
October, 1929 — June, 1930. (Boston: the Massachusetts
Historical Society. 1931. Pp. xv1, 647. $3.00.)

No less than four of the papers contributed to this volume
of the Proceedings have to do in a general or specific manner
with Puritan political and religious theory. Professor Mc-
Ilwain, in his paper “The Transfer of the Charter to New
England and its Significance in American Constitutional
History,” reads into the Watertown protest and Winthrop’s
response to it a precedent for the political theories of Samuel
Adams and Otis and support for his own thesis set forth in
The American Revolution. Mr. F. W. Grinnell, discuss-
ing “John Winthrop and the Constitutional Thinking of
John Adams,” finds additional evidence of the “conscious
continuity of constitutional thought in New England” and
additional support for the theory that Winthrop and his as-
sociates conceived of Massachusetts Bay as “a free state with-
out the realm.” The Reverend Henry Wilder Foote, in a
charming appreciation of George Phillips of Watertown,
touches on the same controversy, and re-asserts that the fa-
mous Watertown protest furnishes the first example of the
“principle of no taxation without representation” in our his-
tory. Of greater interest is Mr. Foote’s evidence that Phillips
was the author of the Humble Request, the authorship of
which is commonly ascribed to the Reverend John White,
of Dorchester. -He concludes, too, with Henry Bond, that
“Phillips had formulated for himself a theory of pure Con-
gregationalism, which he followed consistently. He and his
church were the first in the colony to adopt a definitely Con-
gregational polity.” The late Colonel Charles E. Banks, in
a belligerent paper on “Religious ‘Persecution’ as a Factor
in Emigration to New England, 1630-1640,” impatiently
rejects the “myth” that persecution was an important factor
in Puritan emigration, suggests that many Puritans suffered
from a “pathological mentality” involving delusions of per-
secution, and scores New England historians for lacking a
sense of humor and of proportion in the interpretation of this

380 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

chapter of Puritan history —a series of criticisms from which
Professor Morison dissents with geniality and learning.

Of more general interest is a lengthy study of Governor
Thomas Pownall, “the first Englishman of education and
understanding to visit America for the express purpose of
studying her economic and political conditions,” contributed
by William Otis Sawtelle. Mr. Sawtelle’s study is based
on documents in the colonial archives of Virginia, New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts to which
Pownall’s biographer, the Reverend C. A. W. Pownall, did
not have access. The account of Pownall’s activities here
submitted — activities chiefly of a military character — scarcely
justifies Mr. Sawtelle’s argument that Pownall had a real
understanding of the problem of imperial order. The con-
cluding paper of the volume is a gracious and just apprecia-
tion of Moorfield Storey from the practiced pen of John T.
Morse, Jr. Storey’s contributions to the cause of political
decency, Filipino Independence, and the welfare of the Negro
and the Indian, mark him one of the most distinguished lib-
erals of the last generation and demand a fuller account than
is here given.

The most interesting and the most considerable part of this
volume of the Proceedings consists of a collection of the let-
ters of the Reverend William Gordon, historian, edited by
Worthington C. Ford. Gordon, whose History of the Amer-
ican Revolution held a high place in historical annals until
its value was demolished by Dr. Libby, was an indefatigable
letter writer, a prying busy-body, and a social climber: a
combination of attributes that made him most irritating to
his contemporaries but valuable to historians. He early con-
ceived the idea of writing a history of the American Revo-
lution, and pursued it tenaciously throughout the war, en-
listing for this purpose the codperation of Washington, Jef-
ferson, Gates, John Adams, Bowdoin, and others scarcely
less prominent. His epistolary inclinations were something
of a vice: neither neglect nor rebuffs could discourage him,
and he needed only opportunity and a great name for in-
spiration. Characteristic are the opening words of a letter

BOOK REVIEWS 381

to the long-suffering Washington: “I cannot omit writing
by the present safe conveyance,” he confesses, “though I have
nothing in particular to communicate.” John Eliot called
him, unkindly, “that forthputting, officious gentleman,” and
his friend John Adams described him with less severity:
“he is an eternal talker and somewhat vain, and not accurate
nor judicious; very zealous in the cause and a well-meaning
man, but incautious. ... He is a good man but wants a
guide.”

Gordon’s letters are interesting chiefly to the student of
historical literature. To be sure, there is illuminating com-
ment on the American scene, indignant denunciation of the
selfishness and corruption of the patriots, intelligent argu-
ment of the American political theory, tribute to the gal-
lantry of Washington, the intelligence of John Adams, harsh
criticism of Hancock — but there is nothing new and little
that is noteworthy in all this. But we can trace in these
letters the composition of the History and learn much of the
historical methods, standards and ethics that obtained in the
eighteenth century. Gordon had, on the whole, a correct
understanding of the historian’s craft, though his practice did
not accord with his understanding. He appreciated the value
of contemporary evidence and the importance of documen-
tary source material, and he was tireless in his efforts to ex-
ploit both. He visited and talked with prominent leaders
on both sides of the conflict; he secured access to the papers
of Washington, Greene, Gates, and the Continental Con-
gress. “I mean,” he wrote, “a work that shall abide for
ages, and therefore must call out lustily help, friends, help.”
He set himself rigid standards of truth and impartiality:
“Should I live to accomplish my design . . . many will think
differently of both sides. I am resolved to keep to the
truth.” And again, writing to John Adams, “I shall pay
more attention to resemblance, than the colours and the
drapery. I mean not to publish the whole truth of what I
know, tho’ nothing but what I know or believe to be true.”
As he was not averse to withholding facts that he considered
impertinent, so he did not hesitate to plagiarize. “I appre-

382 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

hend,” he confessed to Washington, “it to be often necessary
to introduce sentiments and information while I suppressed
the names of the writers from whose letters they were taken,
and at times inserted them as though they were originally
my own.” His attitude toward the events through which
he had lived was uncolored by patriotic prejudices; it was,
indeed, unpleasantly realistic. “I flatter myself,” he wrote,
“that there will be a resemblance, known to be by many
but which will not be thought so to be by the multitudes,
other than as the historian may be credited. They will be
hard to believe, that so much quackery and exaggeration, so
much of puff and vapour, and so much dreggs, went into the
composition of public appearances.”

The problem of history as literature concerned him too,
and his apology for a pedestrian style recommends itself: “I
am likely to possess the best materials,” he asserted, “tho’ I
shall not have the best pen; but in history truth is the dia-
mond; fine composition is but the polish — laboured elegance
and extravagant colouring only brings her into suspicion,
hides her beauty, and makes the cautious reader afraid lest
he is in company with a painted harlot. Tho’ ever so naked,
yet if as well proportioned and as truly wrought as the Venus
de Medicis she will enrapture in the private retirements of
the study; but being designed to appear in public she must
be decently and neatly appareled so as not to offend the eye.”

Henry STEELE COMMAGER.

The Lady of Godey’s: Sarah Josepha Hale. By Ruth E.
Finley. With 9 reproductions in color and 24 illustra-
tions. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1931.
Pp. vu, 318. $3.50.)

Sarah Josepha Hale was probably the most remarkable
woman of the American nineteenth century. Her long life
(1788-1879) is so packed with a diversity of interests and
activities that it is practically a panorama of her time. Chiefly

BOOK REVIEWS 383

known as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book during all the no-
table part of its career, and as author of “Mary’s Lamb,” she
was much else: a highly successful mother, a considerable
(e.g-, voluminous) author, completer of Bunker Hill Monu-
ment, nationalizer of Thanksgiving Day, extraordinarily ef-
fective crusader for such reforms as sailors’ homes, day nurs-
eries, public playgrounds, women’s colleges, etc., etc. —in all
of which she was decades ahead of her times.

Although Sarah Hale was by nature a radical, an agita-
tator, she was saved from glorious failure by her sturdy san-
ity. A genuine stateswoman and born strategist, she out-
manceuvered the convention-bound foe on many battlefields.
Miss Finley fully appreciates this rdle of her heroine. Her
book is not only a picturesque description of our Victorian
period, and a story of the renaissance of woman, but a study
in the art of propaganda. Sarah Hale seldom attempted to
carry a position by direct assault; she went round-about and
edged in. ‘Through such tactics she was steadily successful,
but not so well known as her lesser feminine contempora-
ries whose rebellions and self-impalings provided dramatic
showmanship. What stands out in the editor of Godey’s,
from the early dress-making days on the New Hampshire
frontier to the triumph over that vulgarism “female,” is her
restiveness, her cannily controlled meddling, and her men-
tal youthfulness which to the end of her days at ninety-one
enabled her to take in ideas as startling as Darwinism and
the germ theory of disease.

Miss Finley has done a thorough piece of research, and
has written with enthusiasm on a subject which invites gusto.
She drags from the musty pages of Godey’s the detailed pic-
ture of an age, of which her own heroine was the nearest
thing to an American Queen Victoria. She settles (one
hopes for all time) the “Mary’s Lamb” controversy which
Henry Ford bungled as unfortunately as he did the Jewish
question. Yet the book leaves something to be desired. It
is padded out with secondary material, and is less a biography
of Sarah Hale than a subject-matter inventory of the first
seventy-five years of the century.. The heroine does not

384 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
emerge as a personality; she has been exposed and appre-
ciated, but not known and interpreted. The author’s main
reliance has been on the pages of Godey’s; little evidence
exists of attempts to assimilate and reorganize this material.
Hence the book is a catalogue of statements, excerpts, and
exclamatory enthusiasm. As such it lacks organic unity, and
in spite of its wealth of social history and neat sidelights, it
fails to create a colorful or credible milieu for the brisk ac-
tivity of Sarah.

The inevitable association of Sarah Hale’s name with Louis
Godey’s Book has probably tied Sarah for ever to the colored
fashion-plate. How ironical that a book designed to do her
belated justice should perpetuate this notion! From the be-
ginning of her editorial career Sarah was an enemy to fash-
ion-plates and fashion news. The triumph of this immoral
species of “embellishment” was her one great defeat, and no
part of Godey’s less represents her. None the less, the sales
value of The Lady of Godey’s depends largely upon this in-
corrigible association, and a glance at jacket, end-papers, and
colored plates shows that author and publisher were well
aware of the fact.

In Sarah’s birthplace, Newport, New Hampshire, an up-
and-coming Board of Trade some years ago tried to put its
town “on the map” by collecting children’s pennies for a
statue of Mary and her Lamb. The gentlemen might do
better by erecting a statue to illustrate a story of Sarah’s
girlhood. Sarah was sweeping out the kitchen when a neigh-
bor dropped in with a new book, a rare event on the New
England frontier at that time. Some hours later the neigh-
bor came back and found Sarah leaning on the broom as she
had left her, hungrily reading the book. ‘That pose is a sym-
bol of the history of woman in the nineteenth century, of
the conflict between the book and the broom, a conflict in
which Sarah Hale fought on all sides at once, and won too
complete a victory."

Lawrence Martin.

1 See also Mr. Martin’s article, “The Genesis of Godey’s Lady’s
Book,” in the New ENGLAND QUARTERLY, 1, 1 (January, 1928), 41-70.

o

- =m © fF SF ae ae oe’ Ss Ce

——- > — = —-= -

BOOK REVIEWS 385
Classic Americans: A Study of Eminent American Writers
from Irving to Whitman. By Henry Seidel Canby. (New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1931. Pp. xvu,

371. $3-50-)

This volume is an excellent example of what Whitman
once contemptuously called “books about books.” Its con-
tents offset much of the effect of that sneer of the “creative”
mind at the “critical,” for Dr. Canby has been more than
industrious: he has discussed American literature of the first
half of the nineteenth century with sound good sense and fine
feeling. Happily he has not seen fit to couch praise of one
man in terms of denunciation of another — a trick so popular
in current criticism that it tames one’s taste even for the wit-
tiest ““wise-cracks.” Except for a slightly patronizing couple
of “asides” at the expense of Longfellow and an almost fret-
ful impatience at the declamatory influence of Carlyle (it is
to be suspected that Dr. Canby got an overdose of the latter
in college), Classic Americans is wholly free from the bile
of the “new biography.” It lacks, too, something less im-
portant: readers who expect to discover some hitherto-unknown
psychological secret of sin, or suffering, or suppressed desire,
had better avoid disappointment by reading something else.
This is not to say that the author shies away from the tempt-
ing subject of sex; Dr. Canby shows his thorough acquaint-
ance with the modern manner of reading character — the dif-
ference to be noticed in his method is mastery.

Although the scope of this book is limited carefully in the
Introduction, certain curious omissions may occur to students
of the period it covers. Reference to the broad and beneficent
influence of Artemus Ward on the American sense of humor
may have been deliberately reserved for a study of Mark
Twain; but it seems odd that The Autocrat —certainly one
of the wisest, the wittiest, and most beautiful books that has
ever come out of America — should have been left out of the
author’s list of the “six most remarkable books of our single
century of national existence” (187). Surely it is not fanci-
ful to suggest that the masterpiece of Holmes (though it has

386 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
not yet suffered the explosion of a revival with woodcuts by
Rockwell Kent) may live as long as any of the chosen six —
perhaps a little longer. And must Whittier, for all his prim
concern for improving the condition of mankind and conse-
quent wastage of great power, inevitably “go down” as we
“revise our estimates?” Possibly a new generation will be
So just as to forget his famous poems (like “Ichabod”) and
set about reading his good ones.

In calling attention to the fact that American scholars
have been “supercilious” toward their own literature (xm),
Dr. Canby deserves to be complimented for adding some
pertinent remarks on the absurdities of English criticism of
American history and literature. Considering the power of
repetition, one may think he ought to have emphasized these
facts more often in the volume, for the scandal continues —
even in the best of the English reviews. “Weakness for fron-
tier authors with two-gallon hats and barbaric yawps” lays
Englishmen open to the charge of having written some of
the most noticeable nonsense in their language: they like our
books, as they like our people — “in the rough,” and it would
be only wicked to suppose that this liking springs from a de-
sire to feel superior. However that may be, as between
American and English criticism of English and American
literatures, the honors still lie on this side of the Atlantic.
One can scarcely help wishing, at times, that Sydney Smith
were still alive.

It took a brave man to attempt a survey of “The Colonial
Background” in one chapter dealing with Edwards, Cotton
Mather, Woolman, Franklin, Crévecceur, and the Hartford
Wits. Earlier writing, such as Bradford’s and Winthrop’s,
were not American, according to Dr. Canby, but English,
and few will care to cavil at his logic in beginning with men
born in the New World. The Puritans are treated with a
respect begotten of a reaction against stupid and indiscrimi-
nate complaints; but to find the great influence of the Quak-
ers on this country described and considered adequately is
an even more pleasant surprise. As with Calvinists, the

BOOK REVIEWS 387

“bad” ones are often more significant than the “good” ones,
for the level-headed enlightenment of Franklin has contrib-
uted more wisdom to thought in America than the mystic
saintliness of John Woolman ever seems likely to do. Not
only was Franklin’s “philosophy of life . . . strongly influ-
enced by the Quakers among whom he lived,” but through
his mother he was descended from the Folgers of Nantucket,
a famous distributing center for the doctrines of the Friends.

Eight years of editing a weekly review have not told per-
ceptibly on the patience and good nature of Professor Canby;
indeed, it is just possible that the constant pressure of pub-
lishing has helped to secularize an academic sense of propor-
tion. The most enthusiastic essay is that on Emerson; the
study of Poe is the most illuminating; but the estimate of
Whitman is altogether the most valuable because the most
just and necessary. The extravagant differences of opinion,
as between periods of time, as well as persons, in regard to
the character and the work of the author of Leaves of Grass,
have been ridiculous and noisy. One can only hope that
future arguments on that subject will start with a knowledge
of the last chapter in Classic Americans —or even stop there.

It is curious what great prestige and popularity the opinions
of Thoreau enjoy with busy editors and teachers, for one
would hardly think that experience would persuade them to
indulge so much as a sanctimonious lip-service in the cause
of individual liberty. Expression of self, theories of revolt
against existing systems of order always flourish, it is to be
noticed, in snug, well-settled countries: Saint Francis in Italy,
Rousseau in France, Thoreau in New England of the nine-
teenth century. For the obscure, actual liberty of self-knowl-
edge and self-discipline little or nothing is said, for such diffi-
cult and valuable virtues are not so spectacular and historical
as breaking laws, scolding others, or living in the woods. The
best contradiction to the self-assertiveness of even the sweet-
est cranks is the universal crash which always follows on every
wide acceptance by the world of the practical consequences
of their preachings; the second best is silence. To find his

388 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

favorite work and then persuade the world to pay him for
doing it, is the problem most eminently difficult for any man
—after which he will save only so much time and soul as his
native sense directs. It is to be observed, by the way, that
Thoreau took good care to escape the most effective trap of
nature: marriage and procreation. After all, many a man has
done fairly well at living “deliberately” without going either
to jail or to Walden.

One good reason why this book was the result of ten
years’ reading is to be found in a most convenient “Selective
Bibliography” compiled by Professor Randall Stewart of Yale.
The standard editions of the eight authors treated in Classic
Americans add up to the enormous total of 170 volumes, not
counting all the various biographies. Before a pile of litera-
ture so appalling any critic or reviewer may be pardoned for
thinking of those golden days of Constantinople when lay-
men shuddered at the very thought, or titles, of the great
works they should have read.

Stewart MircHeE..

Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America,
1607-1783. Studies of the Economic, Educational, and
Social Significance of Slaves, Servants, Apprentices, and
Poor Folk. By Marcus Wilson Jernegan. (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press. 1931. Pp. xm, 256.
$3.00.)

For twenty years, or more, Professor Jernegan has been
investigating some of the more obscure and recondite prob-
lems of social life in the Colonies, particularly those difficult
ones having to do with the lower and submerged classes. At
last he has gathered his fugitive essays into a volume; he has
felt that, though they deal with a variety of topics, they
warrant inclusion under the general title he has chosen by
a certain “bond of unity.” And so far as each of the thir-
teen studies, taken individually, is concerned, it is one of

BOOK REVIEWS 389

thirteen solid and minute contributions to our understanding
of the colonial scene. ‘There are, for instance, two essays
upon slavery, the one emphasizing the diversification of eco-
nomic life. resulting from the cultivation of plantation man-
ufactures, the technical training given to many Negroes, and
the consequent effects upon white labor and the self-sufficiency
of the South, the second calling attention to the fascinating
problems incident to the Christianization of the Negro. The
body of the book is a study of education in New England
and in the South, pointing out that in both cases the state
assumed a certain responsibility for providing education, but
that it employed parents and masters as its principal agencies.
Thus, while the history of colonial education is being told,
many aspects of apprenticeship and family and slave life are
glanced at in passing. ‘The last section provides two stim-
ulating studies of public poor relief in Virginia and New
England.

Each of these chapters is a piece of careful work, heavily
documented, the fruit of thorough and painstaking research.
We may, perhaps, lament that the style is often heavy or that
the skeleton of organization generally protrudes itself by the
too frequent use of “firstly,” “secondly,” etc. But the book
is not, of course, designed for popular consumption, and the
student will not complain. Yet though he feel, as did the
young Dr. Holmes, thankful for “all small fevers,” he can
not help regretting that Professor Jernegan’s book, when it
did come along, turned out to belie its title by presenting
only this aggregation of sound but isolated articles, that the
majority of them, dealing with education, throw only an
oblique light upon the history of the “laboring and dependent
classes.” He is apt to feel this regret all the more poignantly
when he reflects that the volume provides ample evidence
that Professor Jernegan must be almost the one scholar suffi-
ciently well equipped to give us a really comprehensive his-
tory of colonial slaves, apprentices, and poor folk in general.

Perry MILier.

390 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

The Green Mountain Series of Vermont Books. General
Editor, Arthur Wallace Peach. Vermonters: a Book of
Biographies, edited by Walter H. Crockett, Pp. 254;
Vermont Prose: a Miscellany, edited by Arthur Wallace
Peach and Harold G. Rugg, Pp. 256; Vermont Verse: an
Anthology, edited by Walter John Coates and Frederick
Tupper, Pp. 256; Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads, ed-
ited by Helen Hartness Flanders and George Brown, Pp.
256. (Brattleboro, Vermont: the Stephen Daye Press.
1931. $1.50 the volume.)

These four volumes are the result of an interesting enter-
prise which was initiated, sponsored, financed, and carried
through by inhabitants, native or adopted, of Vermont. In
a way, they are a contribution to regionalism, for they cele-
brate the character and achievement of old New England
— Vermont, of the six states, having been the least altered
by industry and immigration. The prose and the verse, the
ballads and the biographies, even the faces of the persons
portrayed, are excellent samples, altogether, of the popula-
tion and the activities of a great section of the Union — with
the notable exception of life at sea. Save for shipping, Ver-
mont to-day presents a good general idea of what New Eng-
land must have been a hundred years ago, and it is refresh-
ing to find that some Vermonters are by no means ashamed
of the fact. The “Committee on Vermont Traditions and
Ideals” is to be congratulated on having got the work under
way, for the results, though not uniformly successful, are
full of suggestions for the promoters of similar efforts else-
where.

From the point of view of value and availability of ma-
terial, the most interesting volume is that containing the
folk-songs and ballads. Of these one hundred and twenty
items, many were taken down verbatim from the lips of old
singers or their children. In a dozen or more instances the
music is printed, as well, an embellishment which adds im-
mensely to the importance of the record, for the words and
tunes of this disappearing folk-lore ought to be preserved

BOOK REVIEWS 391

together whenever it is possible to do so. For those not
given to ballads, the bare language of the songs of a people
often leaves entirely too much to the imagination; thus ballads
are sometimes a bore for the simple reason that the sound
carried the sense, and when the sound is gone, the words go,
too. Several of the contents of this volume were copied
from the Green Mountain Songster, “compiled by an old
Revolutionary soldier of Sandgate, Vermont, in 1823.”

In Vermont Verse the editors were confronted with a lim-
itation which made the task of preparing an adequate anthol-
ogy unusually difficult. It is bad enough to try to group
poetry together on the basis of language or countries; every
reader has his pet grievance against every great anthology.
But to superimpose the confines of a single state with a pop-
ulation of a good deal less than Boston, was to narrow the
field so strictly that one is relieved to find how much good
verse the editors were able to rake into their volume. As
it is, they have had to gather at both ends, for not only the
work of poets born in Vermont who went to live, or are
living, elsewhere but also that of “immigrants,” like Robert
Frost, is included. Of much of this work, especially the
earlier verse in praise of the hills and valleys of Vermont,
it would not be unfair to think of Samuel Johnson’s having
likened the preaching of women to dogs walking on their
hinder legs: “It is not done well, but you are surprised to
find it done at all.”

Vermont Prose is the most rewarding of these four books,
at least to the casual reader. It begins with Samuel de
Champlain’s account of the discovery of the lake which bears
his name and the fateful skirmish with the Iroquois; it con-
cludes with three addresses by Calvin Coolidge and contains
the report of a talk to the Rutland Rotary Club by Sinclair
Lewis, prefaced by an amusing letter from the same gentle-
man. Many of the sketches and short stories are delightful,
and collectors of curious anecdotes will be rewarded by read-
ing of a bit of tact displayed pompously, on one occasion, by
Bismarck, who unawaredly had been rejoicing the hearts of

392 #THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

three natives of the state with a recital of the parrot-learning
he had picked up on the subject of Vermont (115).
Vermonters contains “new stories of the lives of sixty-two
distinguished [persons] from Ethan Allen to Calvin Cool-
idge.” As in the case of the poets, the word “Vermonters”
is used in the double sense: the sons and daughters of Ver-
mont consist of both emigrants and immigrants. A surpris-
ing number is represented by those who, having been born
in Vermont, went out to seek fame and fortune elsewhere:
Stephen Arnold Douglas, Hiram Powers, William Morris
Hunt, the two Deweys, George and John, Thaddeus Stevens,
and Calvin Coolidge. Of Vermont’s gains by immigration,
such as Jacob Collamer, Theodore N. Vail, and former Gov-
ernor James Hartness, Robert Frost is still, perhaps, the shin-
ing example. Considering the variety and the virtues of the
men and wemen it celebrates, this volume should have been
prepared with more care and criticism. The most annoying
vice of town and state histories is lack of discrimination,
chiefly evidenced in a soft-spoken unwillingness to wound.
No sketch of Thaddeus Stevens, for instance, should fail to
contain the comment that sincerity and courage without wis-
dom are worse than nothing —that even the pressure of par-
tisan politics can not make vindictiveness a virtue. And also,
biographers of philosophers should watch their sense of hu-
mor: if the Rector of the National University at Peking ac-
tually welcomed John Dewey as “the second Confucius,”
the kindest favor to the victim of that Oriental compliment
would have been to keep it under cover (66). The sketch of
Admiral George Dewey most nearly approaches the ideal of
a nice balance between generosity and justice: the too-good-
to-be-forgotten public statement on his proposed candidacy for
the presidency in 1910, is a fair measure of the man (71-72).
A little more toil could have been spent in the research
for these biographical sketches. Perhaps a reviewer is often
merely unlucky, but errors in the lives of persons with whose
careers one is acquainted make one cautious of the other ac-
counts. To write of Colonel George Harvey, for instance,

BOOK REVIEWS 393

that he was appointed ambassador to England in 1921 by
President Wilson (119), is to get the fact as wrong as wrong
can be, without repeating it on the next page. Again, Har-
vey is now commonly supposed to have to divide, with Sena-
tor Lodge, the honor of first seriously suggesting Mr. Hard-
ing for the nomination in 1920. Less importantly, Captain
Alden Partridge first established his famous American Liter-
ary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Middletown, Con-
necticut, where it flourished for many years in two buildings,
the surviving one of which is now the oldest edifice of Wesleyan
University (166).

Occasional errors in the reading of proof will seem par-
donable to any one accustomed to that dullest of all drudgery,
but when mistakes start out from every fourth or fifth page,
editors ought to look to their laurels or run for their lives.
Books so handsome, if modest, deserved a little more care in
checking, just as the biographies in one of them required a’
little more seasoning and sauce.

Stewart MircHe tt.

Stanford White. By Charles C. Baldwin. (New York: Dodd,
Mead and Company. 1931. Pp. xm, 399. $3.50.)

This is no book for architects. Mr. Baldwin shows his
ignorance of architecture in the stunted little summaries of
Romanesque and American architecture he feels obliged to
give. Yet were he the ablest architectural critic in the world,
I doubt if that would have helped him to make a better
book on Stanford White. White’s work and White’s epoch
are too close upon us for us to be able to evaluate them. We
have all we can do trying to recover from them. And in
another way, it is too late to appreciate White, for his mas-
terpieces, Madison Square Garden and the Presbyterian Church
near by, have already been demolished. In a few years
White’s work will probably survive only through his country
houses — and a good many of them have burned. .

394 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

The book does give a graphic picture of Stanford White
the man, and of his voracious age. Never was a person more
in step with his time, and in this he reminds one of Theodore
Roosevelt. Such gusto, such vociferation. No wonder we
all feel limp to-day. In an early letter White describes him-
self, with his fresh red beard, as looking like “a revolving
sun on the half shell.” His letters as a young man travelling
in Europe (in the days when he still had time to write de-
scriptive letters) are full of enthusiasm for Raphael’s wax
head at Lille (?), for an omelette surprise, for the fact that
the arena at Nimes seats 20,000, for everything and any-
thing. He returned from his later and wealthier travels with
the loot of a Roman triumph, at one time scraping all the
tiles off a mosque in Constantinople and shipping them home
in a vessel that was wrecked off Bermuda, at another time
keeping a sailing ship moored off Leghorn till he had loaded
it with Genoese velvets, paintings, brocades, blocks of marble,
mantel-pieces, panelled walls, frescoes, and whole ceilings, and
then bringing the lot to New York. And in making his
public buildings he as recklessly uprooted the masterpieces of
Europe — the facade of St. Gilles, the Consiglio at Verona,
or the Giralda Tower—to reproduce them in our drastic
weather. He could design you a building in early Italian,
Roman, Colonial, Georgian, Byzantine, Francois Premier,
or Louis Seize. It has the air of a vaudeville trick, worth
only the gaping of an astonished second. Philip Sawyer was
probably right when he said that “to White . . . architecture
meant color first, and form and texture next, and propor-
tion afterward, and plan last of all.” The pyramid plump
on its point.

Toward the end of his life he probably learned better man-
ners, for the Presbyterian Church would seem to have been
a fresh and truly original creation out of Byzantine ele-
ments, not a mere reproduced antique made over into a radio
cabinet. Mr. Baldwin makes his one intelligent remark on
architecture when he says that White was the first architect
to solve the problem of the American club, a building which

BOOK REVIEWS 395

must have more than all the properties of a modern hotel —
dining rooms, grill rooms, a library, lounge, bedrooms,
kitchens, squash courts, and a swimming pool — and yet must
sacrifice none of the intimate luxury of a residence. White’s
brilliant social gifts and experience fitted him admirably for
the task. Not that he was the voluptuary the papers tried
to make him after his murder. He hadn’t the time.

Mr. Baldwin’s book is a hymn to Energy, as such. There
is a good deal of extraneous material, notably very bad ap-
pendices on Romanesque architecture and Viollet-le-Duc, but
it is of lasting value as publishing a great many letters from
White and his partners, from St. Gaudens and many prom-
inent men of the time. Mr. Baldwin has gathered a world
of excellent anecdotes, and has achieved a readable source-
book for the period.

A. Hyatr Mayor.

Jonathan Edwards. By Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr.
(New York and London: Harper and Brothers. 1932. Pp.
225. $2.50.)

Jonathan Edwards is perhaps the one major figure in
American literature who has not been made the subject of
too many biographies. Because he has never been the hero
of popular legend, he has been left quietly alone by all save
those who really have been interested in him. This has per-
haps saved his reputation from some new smirches, but it has
also kept him in undeserved obscurity. After all, he was the
first great American thinker, and presumably what he had
to say was important.

Professor McGiffert’s biography is the first to interpret
Edwards and his ideas to the modern world as a whole. The
best previous biography —that of A. V. G. Allen (Boston,
1890), was written primarily for students of theology. The
most modern biography — that of H. B. Parkes (New York,
1930), was more concerned with the man than with his mes-

396 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

sage. Professor McGiffert’s book interprets both the man
and his message, and does it excellently. It should appeal to
all readers who are interested in ideas.

The book is Professor McGiffert’s first, and naturally has
minor faults—largely faults of composition. Often the ma-
chinery creaks. When the author is self-conscious he writes
badly, and his first paragraph is, in point of style, his worst.
In it he speaks of “the undying flame of religion” which be-
came “glowingly incandescent” in Jonathan Edwards. Such
eloquence is forced for the occasion. When he goes on to
describe the background of Edwards’s New Haven, the para-
graphs jerk aleng like freight cars. One car carries bio-
graphical facts, another carries historical facts, another carries
ideas. They do not seem to belong together. But when the
book fairly gets under way, the style takes care of itself.

The book is based on first hand research. It makes no

parade of scholarship, but constantly offers new facts and
new ideas. The author has examined the Edwards’s manu-
scripts in all the larger libraries, and often has taken the
trouble to decipher his difficult shorthand. He has care-
fully studied the catalogue of books which Edwards kept to
guide his reading. He is able to speak with authority upon
many subjects that have long been doubtful. When he can
not speak the final word, he offers excellent hypotheses. For
example, in describing the “immoral book controversy” be-
tween Edwards and his parishioners, he writes:
If one must make some surmise as to the nature of the literature
in question one might propose the “midwives’ books” which cer-
tain young men of Northampton were known to have been sur-
reptitiously reading “in contempt of the church.”

The surmise is correct, as Mr. T. H. Johnson has recently
proved.* It was probably more than a surmise on Professor
McGiffert’s part. To be sure, if he had examined all the
Edwards’s manuscripts in the Andover Library, he could
have spoken conclusively, but he did not intend to write a

1 See the New ENGLAND QuaRTERLY, V, 1 (January, 1932), 37-54-

BOOK REVIEWS 397

“definitive” biography. As it is, he has written one that is
remarkably accurate and interesting.

The great value of the book, however, lies not so much in
the information it embodies, as in the interpretations it offers.
It not only briefs Edwards’s arguments with clarity, but it
interprets them with insight. Professor McGiffert has a
standard of his own, according to which he judges ideas. In
a word or two he often sums up a whole theological problem.
After describing the central conflict in Edwards’s thinking,
he writes: “Edwards did not succeed — who can? —in har-
monizing his pantheism and his Calvinistic theism.” Who
can? Edwards struggled between two worlds. Professor
McGiffert describes the struggle with sympathy and with in-
sight.

Freperic I. Carpenter.

SHORT NOTICES

Mrs. Bell. Edited by Paulina Cony Drown. (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company. 1931. Pp. 87. $1.25.)

Mrs. Bell, daughter of Rufus Choate, was a “character”
—one of those little old ladies who flourish in New Eng-
land, tart with mother-wit and mellow with ancestral wis-
dom. What could be more delicious than her description
of the presidential election of 1912 —“two fat bawling men
giving each other the lie all over creation and screaming to
be President,” and Wilson who “ought to be bound in
covers”; or her pungent comments on Henry James going
British; or this genuine bit of Yankee exaggeration: “She
ate so many clams that her stomach rose and fell with the
tide!” This book should be in every collection of New
England wit and humor.

398 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

The Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, xxiv. Illus-

trated. (Providence, Rhode Island: the Rhode Island His-
torical Society. 1931.)

These Collections contain two important articles by James
Ernst on Roger Williams’s influence on English political
thought during the Commonwealth, based on research in the
Tomasin Collection of tracts in the British Museum. He
substantiates the contention of Jellinek and Freund that
Williams was the dynamic force for toleration in England
as in America; and brings out some interesting material
showing that Rhode Island was the Utopia of English Lev-
ellers, just as Pennsylvania later became the Promised Land
of English Quakers. In the April number is printed a Prov-
idence merchant’s book of the seventeenth century, and there
are other shipping and privateering documents in the volume.
There are excellent articles on local history, such as the
Queen’s Fort in South Kingston, and Ancient Roads in the
Pettaquamscutt Purchase.

An article on John Rous, R.N., is continued into the first
number (January, 1932), of volume xxv. This habit of
serializing articles or documents is a common vice of Amer-
ican historical societies, and has occasioned more bad temper
and language among students of history than any other ed-
itorial eccentricity. Why can not the organ of a society,
assured of financial support, not dependent on subscribers,
devote an entire number, or even volume, to printing a long
article or collection of documents, instead of trailing it along
from number to number, and from year to year? And why
do not more editors of historical quarterlies print the docu-
ments that have been given to their respective societies, and
which often lie bundled up in a place where no one can use
them, instead of using up space by articles on George Wash-
ington’s Mother and Soldiers of Podunk in the World War?
This last criticism does not apply to the Rhode Island His-
torical Society. “They publish relatively little; but the qual-
ity of their articles and the value of their documents may
challenge comparison with those of any historical publica-
tion in the United States.

S. E. M.

SHORT NOTICES 399

The New-England Primer Enlarged: or an Easy and Pleas-
ant Guide to the Art of Reading, Adorned with Cuts. To
Which Are Added the Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cot-
ton’s Catechism, Fc. Twentieth Century Reprint. (N.p.:
Le Roy Phillips. N.d. Pp. ii, 88. 50 cents.)

The reprinting of the New-England Primer by the Fair-
banks Family in America, Inc., of Dedham, Massachusetts,
makes available, at a nominal cost, an important early edu-
cational text-book which in its original form has become a
rare collectors’ item. Unlike the edition sponsored by Mr.
Henry Ford several years ago, the present issue is as nearly
as feasible a facsimile reproduction. The original from which
it is taken was published under the imprint of “E. Draper,
for B. Larkin, in Cornhill,” Boston, apparently between the
years 1785 and 1790, and is now owned by Mr. G. A.
Plimpton of New York. Because the last leaf of the Plimpton
copy is missing, that leaf in this edition is printed from mod-
ern type. It may be noted also that, unlike the original, the
binding is of paper, not of thin wood strips covered with
paper. Of particular interest in this bicentennial year is the
quaint wood-cut of “General Washington” which serves as
a frontispiece for the book. The reprint should be in wide
demand among all those interested in the historical aspects of
popular literary culture in America as well as students of
American cducational history.

A. M. S.

The American Democrat. By James Fenimore Cooper. An
Introduction by H. L. Mencken. (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf. 1931. Pp. 184.)

This reprinting of Cooper’s straightforward, trenchant ob-
servations on the body politic of the young republic will not
enrich particularly the wisdom of social thinkers. There is
an air of naiveté about this thought of ninety-three years ago.
Cooper disposes of “Liberty” in eight pages—a relatively

400 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

long section—and the advantages of monarchy in one; per-
haps these proportions seemed to Cooper significant. The
volume consists of forty-six brief essays on similar topics. Each
is slight, luminously clear, and unimportant in the history of
the thought with which the author is concerned. Not so,
however, are the essays in respect to Cooper himself. He
himself stands out on every page, this born aristocrat with
democratic principles, defining fearlessly the canons which
should animate his countrymen, and stating with complete
candor wherein they have departed from them. Once more
we are pertinently reminded of what at least two recent bi-
ographies of the misunderstood Cooper have sought to con-
vince us that his part as a critic of his times was courageous
and competent. No American ever longed for real democ-
racy in America more than Cooper; none ever saw its ex-
cesses in the first decades of the nineteenth century with more
disgust. In contrast to the novels in which he atirizes
mercilessly the apostacy from the early dream, he is in this
book cool and restrained, holding up the principles which
must have seemed, when read in 1838, a call to all thought-
ful Americans to renew those first vows of theirs concern-
ing true democracy.
S. T. W.

Golden Tales of New England. Selected by May Lamber-
ton Becker. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
1931. Pp. x, 378. $2.50.)

This is the best anthology of tales about New England
that we have seen. Miss Becker has selected those typical
of town and country life, and of the sea. But the real merit
of the collection is the inclusion of some of those admirable
stories of rural life by the group that began to write in the
eighteen-seventies and eighties. Annie Trumbull Slosson’s
“A Local Colorist” sets the tune. Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary
E. Wilkins, Rose Terry Cooke, and Rowland Robinson fol-
low. Living writers are represented by Dorothy Canfield’s

SHORT NOTICES 401

“Old Man Warner,” James B. Connolly’s “From Reykjavik
to Gloucester,” and Bliss Perry’s “By the Committee” —a
particularly happy choice of one of the best short stories of
New England which had not been reprinted. One misses
Ethel Kelley. For the selections of the “Augustan Age”
the editor has to fall back on descriptions rather than stories
—three excerpts from The Lowell Offering, Thoreau’s de-
scription of the Wellfleet Oysterman, and Mrs. Stowe’s
Thanksgiving at Oldtown; but it was doubtless impossible
to find stories by any of the classic New England writers
except Hawthorne and Holmes.

A New Bedford Merchant. By Horatio Hathaway. Being
Notes taken from Records in the Office of the late Thomas .
Schuyler Hathaway, a Successful Shipowner of the Nine-
teenth Century. Privately printed. (Boston: The Merry-
mount Press. 1930. Pp. 72.)

In a beautifully printed and illustrated book Mr. Hathaway
has told, with liberal quotations from the records, the story
of his ancestors’ mercantile activities in New Bedford. These
were for the most part the China trade and other deep-sea
ventures, in clipper ships and their predecessors; a New Bed-
ford interest usually thrust into the background by whaling.
Unfortunately, like many monographs on New England ships
and seamen, this one is printed privately, and in an edition
limited to fifty copies.

402 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Rospert Frost “Lacks Power”®

Mr. Frederic I. Carpenter’s review of Mr. Frost’s Col-
lected Poems abounds in strangeness. For example, the
reader’s inward eye bulges as he beholds this unseemly scrim-
mage: “Instead of flying onward ‘with the driven flock,’
and striving to outdistance it, he (Mr. Frost) has settled
happily ‘back behind pursuit.’ . . . Emerson and Whitman
did not settle quietly ‘back behind pursuit,’ but left the driven
flock behind them.” From confusions such as that, Mr.
Carpenter emerges to his climax: Mr. Frost “lacks power.”

A sweeping and — if true — damning statement such as this
can be examined only by defining the main term. Mr. Car-
penter defines power indirectly by example. Power is to be
found in the works of Walt Whitman, Mr. Robinson Jeffers,
Mr. S. V. Benét, Mr. E. A. Robinson, and in America itself.

Whitman’s power took the form of a “cosmic imagination
which creates its own world.” “Cosmic imagination” is surely
an attribute uniquely God’s, but passing over the phrase —
which, after all, approximates closely enough the idea Mr.
Carpenter wishes to convey —I would quarrel with the idea
itself. ‘The creation of a private world is not the function
of an artist; it is the self-indulgence of unsteady minds and
defeated hearts. If it be true—and I agree with Mr. Car-
penter that it is true —that Whitman created a world of his
own, he takes his place with spiritists, self-appointed prophets,
and other deluded people who are unable to adjust them-
selves to the facts and methods of actuality. That sort of
imagination creates a dream world where the self can as-
sume more importance than ever it earned in the real one.
Mr. Frost does lack that power.

Of Mr Robinson Jeffers’s “tragic imagination which creates
visions” I remark that tragedy must be sublime and that Mr.
Jeffers’s visions are ridiculous. His conception of life as a
round of incest, bestiality, and sundry violences (which are
the themes of nearly all his major works) is wearisome and,

1 See the NEw ENGLAND QUARTERLY, V, 1 (January, 1932), 159-160.

402

ROBERT FROST 403

happily, untrue. Of course one is aware that he uses these
themes “symbolically” — but all poetry makes symbols. A
critic must hold a poet strictly to account for his choice of
them. Mr. Jeffers’s long poems, it seems to me, bring up
the dispute of whether balance or obsession is the more de-
sirable quality in art. Aware that obsession is the more fash-
ionable at the moment, I’m still for balance. In my opinion,
Mr. Jeffers displays the disordered power of a wrenched mind.
Mr. Frost does lack that power.

We may dismiss, without comment on the quality of Mr.
Benét’s work, the assertion that Mr. Frost lacks his “epic
imagination.” I will add to the accusation: Mr. Frost’s works
show few of the elements I find in sea-chanteys, cow-boy
ballads, or the love sonnets of Miss Edna St. Vincent Millay.
I have no data with which to judge his epic imagination, for
the collected poems reveal, at least to my eyes, no poem with
an epic intention. A man can not be said to fail at tasks he °
has not undertaken.

I am perplexed by Mr. Carpenter’s remark concerning the
“dramatic imagination” of Mr. Robinson. The dramatic
is almost the last effect intended in Mr. Robinson’s narra-
tives. They are philosophical meditations on the nature of
man. Story, setting, even characterization are deliberately
subordinated to the commentary on human motives. The
few and brief dramatic moments are always accompanied by
grave exposition — dramas consisting almost wholly of stage
directions and asides. This statement is not meant in dis-
paragement of Mr. Robinson’s poems. ‘They are not de-
signed to be dramatic. They are not dramatic. Nor is Mr.
Frost a dramatic poet, though there is more drama implicit
in his longer poems than in Mr. Robinson’s.

And so we come to the last example of power — America
itself. And we feel the need for definition once more in
spite of the fact that Mr. Carpenter writes at this point:
“This is not to criticize, but to define.” He continues,
“America, as a nation, has renounced happiness for the pos-
sibility of greatness.” What can this mean? What great-
ness? Is she striving toward the spiritual grandeur of Egypt?

404 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

toward the balanced life which was the ideal of Athenian
civilization? toward the polish of France? the majesty of
England? — or to something finer than, or at least different
from, all these? I hope and believe that I am a patriot, but
I do not observe any aim in American civilization toward
the possibility of greatness except in bulk. We love size.

There we have the gist of the matter. Mr. Carpenter
began his review with a veiled complaint that Mr. Frost’s
Collected Poems “occupy about 350 pages — printed not very
closely.” He then disclaimed any intention of criticizing the
work on the basis of quantity. “Not quantity but quality is
important.” But — quite unconsciously —he did judge Mr.
Frost’s work merely by quantity. Mr. Frost lacks, he says,
a power which is found in America itself and in the works
of Whitman, Mr. Jeffers, Mr. Benét, and Mr. Robinson.
Now, there is only one quality common to all these examples:
bulk. Bulk equals Power.

But power is not size, nor is it like escaping steam, puff.
Power is any art is two-fold: impulse and restraint. Steam
is necessary, but equally so the clenching piston which forces
it to an orderly accomplishment of the carefully foreseen.
Mr. Frost has that power.

Ropert Hittyer.

Nores on NIGHTINGALES

“. . . Mr. Frost has not been a prolific writer. . . . His
verse is perfectly modulated. . . . It uses new and unique
rhythms. It is creative, in the best sense. His technique
is perfect; his feeling for words exquisite. ... Mr. Frost
is a poet’s poet . . . he is completely and perfectly himself.
. . « For the assurance of happiness, he has renounced the
possibility of absolute greatness.”

Freperic I. CarPENnTER.

Some time ago it was observed that no man ever heard
himself praised quite to his own satisfaction: if an orator,
for instance, were complimented on a silver tongue, he

NIGHTINGALES 405

would immediately try to call attention to a Roman profile
or a handsome head of hair. Mr. Frost has been the inno-
cent occasion of a double-edged correction to this false phi-
losophy of Swift; not only has he rested quietly content with
praise, but the world has watched his friends rush in to the
rescue of his great name. To the biographer of Gulliver
such a spectacle would have meant no less than the immedi-
ate revelation of a new heaven and a new earth.

Some kind of revelation being imminent, as always, Mr.
Carpenter deserves due credit for having added a decent ex-
citement to the last few moments of the world. No one
would accuse him of provoking controversy in cold blood;
yet any one who happened to remember that a casual adultery
led directly to a ten years’ siege of Troy, would hardly care
to predict the outcome of an obliging two pages on the uneasy
land of letters. Praise is difficult writing at all times, and even
more difficult reading, but Mr. Carpenter was just a little rash
at flavoring his honey with gall.

To congratulate a poet on not being a “prolific writer” was
an error both in principle and tact, for poets are pious chiefly
in this: they see no reason to restrict Jehovah’s injunction to
increase to the business of begetting children. No one can re-
proach them with loading their pages and their reputations
with rubbish if contrast sets off their occasional successes to ad-
vantage. Quantity, indeed, is in the very best tradition of
English verse, and who will say that the quality of his favorite
poet has suffered? If exception be asked for the sake of Donne
and Robert Bridges, neither of whom (it is said) ever wrote
a bad line, some patient person has lost a chance, till now,
to add two wonders to his world. Although Nature is embar-
rassingly abundant by instinct, poets have always split the hon-
ors of the proletariat with the slums.

“Poet’s poet” is a phrase no friend of Mr. Frost could swal-
low calmly. It has the musty smell of the closet — even to
those who doubt if any poet, nowadays, is ever any thing more.
Once the title was distinguished; perhaps it still is rare, for
greater than the danger of writing too badly for one’s friends

406 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
is the terror of writing too well. The glory is short-lived, at
best, in as much as literary success seems to fade out before
the flattery of imitation, as the late Lytton Strachey lived
long enough to learn. If Shakespeare has escaped eclipse,
thus far, it is simply because authors are so excellent at sonnets
that they have no time, yet, for trying their hands at plays.

To write of Mr. Frost that he is “completely and per-
fectly himself” may shake his credit in these days when poetry
is a clearing house for the exchange of echoes and influences.
But for Mr. Carpenter to print of any poet that he has “re-
nounced the possibility of absolute greatness,” is a confession
of his having confused diplomacy with duplicity. Not to be
something “absolute” in a world where “every great genius
seems to ride upon mankind, like Pyrrhus on his elephant” is
crime and punishment together. Unreadiness to rank oneself
with Homer, Dante, or T. S. Eliot argues want of ambition
and character in any self-respecting poet. Because Mr. Frost
would be the last man to fancy himself great, some may think
him fortunate in having friends willing to do so for him — and
call his own good judgment, diffidence.

The critical sense of poets, if a trifle notorious at times, is
sane and solid at bottom; otherwise Wordsworth’s wayside
dicta upon Keats and Shelley, or Swinburne’s colossal dedi-
cations to Victor Hugo — to dip no deeper than the nineteenth
century—would sound absurd. ‘This divine right of poets
to dispose of other poets stems from the stern way they prune
their own works. Hardly a poem has come out in the last
ten years without its readers wishing they might have had a
little more tacked on at either end to give the hang of it. John
Brown’s Body has shown them how long an epic might
possibly be; and Mr. Robinson seems likely to supply sci-
entists with the first probable instance of perpetual motion.
These scientists, by the way, to whom discussions of zxsthetic
values often seem only so much talk in twilight, can scarcely
complain, for all of us know that science itself is nothing
but the latest superstition; and no sensible person asks uni-

NIGHTINGALES 407

form standards of an art so human that a foot has more
than one length in both space and time.

It is curious that Mr. Carpenter should not have discov-
ered that Whitman is “selling short” among professionals.
The reason is not far to seek. The seer of Camden was
the idol of all those who knew poetry too well to try to
write it. Now that every one is suspected of going in for
a little verse here and there, dead poets would think it a
pity that making new poems should take up nearly all the
time that reading good ones did. Whitman’s progress from
importunate fame to the failure of being forgotten is no
cause for discouragement, for the common denominator of
greatness consists precisely in a man’s being able to survive a
series of burials and new biographies. And if all men are not
poets, neither are all poets, men — witness every sister in
the Muse from Sappho to Miss Edith Sitwell.

But the prize knack is to know a poet at first sight, and
act accordingly. At this, Mr. Carpenter has failed com-
pletely. For want of that fraternity’s signs of mutual rec-
ognition, reviewers can do no better than read the follow-
ing respectable hint:

. . - I always have a secret veneration for any one I observe to
be a little out of repair in his person, as supposing him either a
poet or a philosopher; because the richest minerals are ever found
under the most ragged and withered surface of the earth.

If this be true, then Mr. Carpenter’s divining rod has de-
ceived him shamefully, and he has missed the secret springs
of inspiration altogether. Just possibly, therefore, Mr. Frost
would not relish having been called even a good poet, let

alone a great one.

Srewart MircHELL.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEW ENGLAND
1931
ALLYN B. FORBES

Articles on the history of New England in periodical pub-
lications for the year 1931, including bound volumes of his-
torical societies that publish no serials.

Readers of the New England Quarterly will confer a favor
on the editors by sending them notes of such articles as they
appear, especially from periodicals outside the historical field.

GENERAL

Capen, Nathan: A History of Goshen. Proceedings, Ver-
mont Historical Society, n. s. 1 (June), 83-108.

Coolidge, P. T. and Wheeler, W. C.: Growth of Pulp-
wood in Maine. Journal of Forestry, xx1x (October),
907-914.

Daniels, Winthrop: Railroad Unification in New Eng-
land in Relation to the Four-Party Plan. Harvard Business
Review, x (October), 8-14.

Eno, Joel N.: The Expansion of Maine — Chronological
— Based on Official Records. Americana, xxv (July),
380-410.

The Expansion of New Hampshire — Chron-
ological — from Provincial, State, and Town Papers. /bid.,
(January ), 83-99.

The Expansion of Vermont — Chronological
— Based on Official Records. /bid., (October), 534-549.

Gavit, Joseph: A List of American Newspaper Reprints.
Bulletin, New York Public Library, xxxv (April), 212-223.

Greet, William C.: A Record from Lubec, Maine, and Re-
marks on the Coastal Type. American Speech, vt (Au-
gust ), 397-403.

408

BIBLIOGRAPHY 409

Grider, Rufus A.: Powder Horns: Their History and Use.
Quarterly Bulletin, New York Historical Society, xv
(April), 3-24.

Hinckley, Edward B.: Cape Cod Folks. Harvard Gradu-
ates’ Magazine, xxx1x (June), 453-466.

Johns, Alfred E.: New York and New England. The
Landmark, x111 (November ), 659-662.

Keep, William J.: Early American Cooking Stoves. Old-
Time New England, xxii (October), 70-87.

Kenyon, Marjorie S.: A New England Backwater. The
Landmark, x111 (December ), 782-784. (The Cove, Maine.)

Morse, John L.: The History of Pediatrics in Massachu-
setts. New England Journal of Medicine, ccv (July 23),
169.

Parker, Herbert: Courts and Lawyers of New England.
Americana, xxv (january), 62-82.

Parker, Thomas E.: Mount Chocorua. Register, Lynn
Historical Society, Number 25, part 11, 167-182.

Rushford, Edward A.: Lard Lamps. Essex Institute His-
torical Collections, Lxvui (April), 161-169.

Spaulding, Perley and MacAloney, H. J.: A Study of Or-
ganic Factors Concerned in the Decadence of Birch in
Cut-Over Lands in Northern New England. Journal of
Forestry, xx1x (December), 1134-1149.

Visher, Stephen S.: The Comparative Rank of the Ameri-
can States. American Journal of Sociology, xxxvi
(March), 735-757.

Wailes, Rex: Notes on Some Windmills in New England.
Old-Time New England, xx1 (January), 99-128.

Wasson, George S.: The Old Rockland, Maine, Lime
Trade. /bid., (April), 156-167.

Wild Animal Damage to New England Forests. Journal
of Forestry, xx1x (May), 700-708.

CotoniAt Periop

Baker, Ray S.: Remember Baker. New England Quarterly,
Iv (October), 595-628.

410 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Ballou, Hosea S.: William Blaxton, the First Bostonian.
Proceedings, Bostonian Society, 1931, 21-47.

Bolton, Ethel S.: Immigrants to New England, 1700-1775.
Essex Institute Historical Collections, txvu (January),
89-112; (April), 201-224; (July), 305-328.

Brasch, Frederick E.: The Royal Society and Its Influ-
ence upon Scientific Thought in the American Colonies.
Scientific Monthy, xxx (October), 336-355; (Novem-
ber), 448-469.

Brennan, Ellen E.: The Massachusetts Council. New
England Quarterly, 1v (January), 54-83.

Brown, E. Francis: The Law Career of Major Joseph
Hawley. /bid., (July), 482-508.

Calverton, V. F.: The Puritan Myth. Scribner's, txxx1x
(March), 251-257.

Carpenter, Frederic I.: The Radicalism of Jonathan Ed-
wards. New England Quarterly, 1v (October), 629-643.
Chapin, Howard M.: Colonial Military Flags. /bid., (July),

448-459.

——————— Queen’s Fort. Collections, Rhode Island His-
torical Society, xx1v (October), 141-156.

Coleman, Emma L.: The Story of Some New England
Girls Who Were Captured by Indians and Taken to Can-
ada. Old-Time New England, xxi (July), 23-30.

Coolidge, Richard B.: The Medford of Cradock and Win-
throp. Medford Historical Register, xxx1v (March), 2-19.

Ernst, James: Roger Williams and the English Revolu-
tion. Collections, Rhode Island Historical Society, xxv
(January), 1-58; (July), 118-128.

Ford, Amelia C., Ed.: William Shirley to Samuel Waldo,
April 15, 1739. American Historical Review, xxxvi (Jan-
uary ), 350-360.

Hare, Lloyd C. M.: Thomas Mayhew, Patriarch to the
Indians. Americana, xxv (January), 1-61; (April), 157-
219; (July), 327-379; (October ), 486-533.

Harkness, R. E. E.: Some Early Practices of Baptists in

America. Journal of Religion, x1 (October), 533-553-

BIBLIOGRAPHY 411

Gipson, Lawrence H.: Connecticut Taxation and Parlia-
mentary Aid Preceding the Revolutionary War. Ameri-
can Historical Review, xxxvi (July), 721-739.

Haroutanian, Joseph G.: Jonathan Edwards: A Study in
Godliness. Journal of Religion, x1 (July), 400-419.

James, Alfred P.: A Study of the Intellectual Life of C.-
lonial America. Historical Outlook, xx (February),
69-74.

Kennedy, William H. J.: Catholics in Massachusetts be-
fore 1750. Catholic Historical Review, xvu (April), 10-28.

Kopf, Carl H.: Samuel Lincoln Comes to Salem. Essex
Institute Historical Collections, xvii (October), 353-360.

Lindsley, Charles E.: The English Regicides in America.
Magazine of History, x.1v, Extra Number 175, 151-172.
(Reprint of an address given in 1803.)

Miller, Perry G.: Thomas Hooker and the Democracy of
Early Connecticut. New England Quarterly, 1v (Octo- .
ber), 663-712.

Miller, William D.: Some Ancient Roads in the Petta-
quamscutt Purchase. Collections, Rhode Island Historical
Society, xxiv (July), 105-117.

Morison, Samuel E.: Those Misunderstood Puritans.
Forum, txxxv (March), 142-147.

Nettels, Curtis: British Policy and Colonial Money Sup-
ply. Economic History Review, 11 (October), 219-245.

The Economic Relations of Boston, Philadel-
phia, and New York, 1680-1715. Journal of Economic and
Business History, 11 (February), 185-215.

England and the Spanish-American Trade,
1680-1715. Journal of Modern History, 11 (March), 1-32.

The Menace of Colonial Manufacturing. New
England Quarterly, 1v (April), 230-269.

O’Dwyer, George F.: Some Massachusetts Wills. Journal,
American Irish Historical Society, xxix, 164-172.

Old Norfolk County Records. Essex Institute Historical
Collections, xvi (April), 170-176.

Parkes, Henry B.: Cotton and Williams Debate Tolera-
tion. New England Quarterly, 1v (October), 735-756.

412 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Pew, William A.: The Spirit of Puritanism. Essex Insti-
tute Historical Collections, Lxvu (April), 137-144.

Pilgrim Letters at Leyden. Proceedings, Massachusetts
Historical Society, Lx111, 123-134.

Plan of the Fort at Township Number 4, Now Charles-
town, New Hampshire. Old-Time New England, xx1
(April), 179-181.

Record of the Public Transactions of the Inhabitants
of Salem Village. Historical Collections, Danvers His-
torical Society, x1x, 65-96.

Salem Town Records. Essex Institute Historical Collec-
tions, Lxvil (July), 233-248.

Santee, J. F.: Samuel Gorton, Champion of Liberty.
Education, i1 (June), 605-616.

Sawtelle, William O.: Thomas Pownall, Colonial Gover-
nor, and Some of His Activities in the American Colonies.
Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical Society, Lx111, 233-
284.

Tyler, Lyon G.: New England’s Contributions to Vir-
ginia. Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, XL, 17-
26.

Upham, George B.: Sir William Phips and the Early
Townships of Western New Hampshire and Eastern Ver-
mont. Proceedings, Vermont Historical Society, n. s., 1
(September), 129-141.

Vital Records from the Diary of Joseph Goodhue of New-
bury, 1742-1763. Essex Institute Historical Collections,
Lxvir (October), 401-407.

Wood, W. LeRoy: First Settlers in East Providence. Col-
lections, Rhode Island Historical Society, xx1v (April),
92-096.

Yorke, Dane: Shakespeare’s New England. American
Mercury, xxu (January ), 63-70.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 413

REVOLUTIONARY War

Barnes, Viola F.: Francis Legge, Governor of Loyalist
Nova Scotia, 1773-1776. New England Quarterly, 1v
(July), 420-447.

Blake, Nelson M., Ed.: A Dialogue between Arnold and
Lord Cornwallis. William and Mary Quarterly, 2nd. s., x1
(April), 146-148. (A poem of unknown authorship dating
back to shortly after the Revolution. )

Boyle’s Journal of Occurrences in Boston, 1759-1778. New
England Historical and Genealogical Register, Lxxxv
(January), 5-28 (1775); (April), 117-132 (1776).

“Brother Jonathan” Calls for Volunteers. Magazine of
History, xtu, Extra Number 166, 123. (A commission
signed in blank by Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, July,
1775.)

Burk, John: Bunker-Hill; or the Death of General War- .
ren (1797). Ibid., Extra Number 168, 1-45.

Bushnell, Charles I.: A Memoir of Eli Bickford, a Patriot
of the Revolution. /bid., Extra Number 166, 127-132.
(First printed in 1865.)

Chinard, G.: Notes de John Adams sur Voltaire et Rous-
seau. Modern Language Notes, xvi (January), 26-30.
Coolidge, Ruth D. and Richard B.: Medford and George
Washington. Medford Historical Register, xxxtv (De-

cember ), 57-65.

Diary of Lieutenant William Humphrey of Arnold’s Ex-
pedition (1775-1776). Magazine of History, xi, Extra
Number 166, 87-122.

Letters of the Reverend William Gordon, Historian of
the American Revolution, 1770-1799. Proceedings, Mas-
sachusetts Historical Society, LxI11, 303-613.

Middlebrook, Louis F.: Thomas Witham, of Cape Ann.
Essex Institute Historical Collections, txvu (July), 289-
298.

Morris, Richard B.: Legalism vs. Revolutionary Doc-

trine. New England Quarterly, tv (April), 195-215.

414 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s
Troops under the Command of General Gage (1775).
Magazine of History, x.1v, Extra Number 175, 117-150.
(The first official report of the Concord fight. )

Newburyport Celebration in 1781. Essex Institute His-
torical Collections, xv (July), 302-303.

Orderly Book Kept by Benjamin Peabody of Middleton
While at West Point in 1780. Historical Collections, Dan-
vers Historical Society, x1x, 97-112.

Orderly Book of Captain Enoch Putnam of Danvers, 1776.
Essex Institute Historical Collections, txvu1 (January),
49-64; (April), 119-136; (July), 249-264; (October),
361-379.

Orton, J. R.: Arnold, A Play (1854). Magazine of History,
xLi1, Extra Number 167, 155-244.

Seybolt, Robert F.: A Note on the Casualties of April 19,
and June 17, 1775. New England Quarterly, 1v (July),
525-528.

Siebert, Wilbur H.: Loyalist Troops of New England.
Ibid., (January), 108-147.

Wardner, Henry S.: The Haldimand Negotiations. Pro-
ceedings, Vermont Historical Society, n. s., 11 (March), 3-
29.

Nationa Periop

Abbot, Mrs. Joseph H.: Nathan Dane and His Mother.
Essex Institute Historical Collections, txvu (January),
27-45.-

Albion, Robert G.: New York and Its Rivals, 1815-1860.
Journal of Economic and Business History, 11 (August),
602-629.

An Old Salem Club of 1797. Essex Institute Historical
Collections, Lxvu (July), 301.

Anthony, Francis W.: History of the Practice of Medi-

cine in Haverhill and Vicinity Since 1836.... New Eng-

land Journal of Medicine, c1v (March 26), 661.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 415

Bailey, Thomas A.: Party Irregularity in the Senate of
the United States, 1869-1901. Southwestern Political and
Social Science Quarterly, x1 (March), 355-376.

Burnham, J. Forrest: The Story of the Essex North Dis-
trict Medical Society.... New England Journal of Medi-
cine, civ (March 26), 665.

Burroughs, Eden: An Election Sermon (1787). Magazine
of History, xii, Extra Number 172, 205-224. (The first
pamphlet printed in Vermont. )

Cardozo, Benjamin N.: Mr. Justice Holmes. Harvard Law
Review, xttv (March), 682-692.

Carpenter, Frederic I., Ed.: A Letter from Tolstoy (1889).
New England Quarterly, tv (October), 777-782.

Crownfield, Frederic R., Ed.: The Letters of William
Hill, 1792-1794. New-Church Review, xxxvi (July),
300-319. (“The lasting foundations of the Church in Bos-
ton were the result of the efforts of William Hill.”’)

Deutsch, Herman J.: Yankee-Teuton Rivalry in Wiscon-
sin Politics of the 1870’s. Wisconsin Magazine of History,
xiv (March), 262-282.

Diary of Henry Stevens, The, (1838). Proceedings, Ver-
mont Historical Society, n. s., 11 (September), 115-128.
Dow, Edward F.: A Portrait of the Millennial Church of

Shakers. University of Maine Studies, xxx1v (August).

Drown, Edward §S.: There Was War in Heaven. New
England Quarterly, tv (January), 30-53. (Church troubles
in Augusta, Maine, in 1840.)

Dyer, Walter A.: Embattled Farmers. /bid., (July), 460-
481. (Shays’s Rebellion.)

Eldridge, Charles W.: Journal of a Tour through Ver-
mont to Montreal and Quebec in 1833. Proceedings, Ver-
mont Historical Society, n. s., 1 (June), 53-82.

Frankfurter, Felix: The Early Writings of Oliver Wen-
dell Holmes, Jr. Harvard Law Review, xttv (March),

717-796.

416 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Galloway, Tod B.: A Forgotten New England Prodigy.
New England Quarterly, tv (July), 515-524. (Zerah Col-
burn and his “faculty for the composition and decomposi-
tion of numbers.” )

Holmes, Oliver W.: Levi Pease, the Father of New Eng-
land Stage-Coaching. Journal of Economic and Business
History, 11 (February ), 241-263.

Jenks, William L.: Stanley Griswold. Michigan History
Magazine, xv (Winter), 5-18. (A native of Torrington,
Conn., and first secretary of Michigan Territory.)

Letter Describing Washington’s Visit to Salem in 1789.
Essex Institute Historical Collections, txvi1 (July), 299-
300.

Letters from the Papers of Governor John Albion An-
drew, 1864. Proceedings, Massachusetts Historical So-
ciety, Lx111, 81-89.

Letters of Abijah Bigelow, Member of Congress, to His
Wife, 1810-1815. Proceedings, American Antiquarian
Society, XL, 305-406.

Moody, Robert E.: The First Year of the Emigrant Aid
Company. New England Quarterly, tv (January), 148-155.

Peterson, Roy M.: A South American’s Impressions of
New England after Yorktown (1784). Jbid., (October),
713-734-

Plucknett, Theodore F. T.: Holmes: the Historian. Har-
vard Law Review, xttv (March), 712-716.

Records of the Danvers Light Infantry. Historical Collec-
tions of the Danvers Historical Society, Xx, 33-49.

Sawyer, Henry A.: Shays’s Rebellion, Its Inception and
Results. Register, Lynn Historical Society, Number 25,
part 11, 56-76.

Smith, G. Hubert: Noah Webster, the Archzologist.
American Anthropologist, xxx111 (October), 620-624.
Snow, Frank W.: History of Medicine at the Mouth of
the Merrimack River... . / New England Journal of Medi-

cine, cctv (March 26), 658.

Thwing, Charles F.: William Everett. Harvard Gradu-

ates’ Magazine, xxx1x (June), 467-477.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 417

Turner, Frederick J.: New England, 1830-1850. Bulletin,
Huntington Library, Number 1 (May), 153-198.

Waite, Frederick C.: Dr. Martha A. (Hayden) Sawin,
The First Woman Graduate in Medicine to Practice in
Boston. New England Journal of Medicine, ccv (Novem-
ber 26), 1053-1055.

——_—_———— Dr. Nancy E. (Talbot) Clark, The Second
Woman Graduate in Medicine to Practice in Boston. [bid.,
(December 17), 1195-1198.

Washburn, Robert C.: Lydia Pinkham. American Mer-
cury, xx (February), 172-179.

Wilson, Harold F.: The Roads of Windsor. Geographical
Review, xx1 (July), 379-397. (A study in New England
rural decline. )

Woodruff, Hezekiah N.: A Sermon Occasioned by the
Death of General George Washington (1800). Magazine
of History, Extra Number 166, 135-148.

Yorke, Dane: The Progenitor of Prohibition. American
Mercury, xxi (July), 350-358. (Neal Dow of Portland,
Maine. )

MariTIME

Bigelow, Bruce M.: Aaron Lopez: Merchant of Newport
(1731-1782). New England Quarterly, tv (October),
757-776.

The Walter Newbury Shipping Book (1673-
1689). Collections, Rhode Island Historical Society, xx1v
(April), 73-91.

Captain John Rous, R. N. /bid., (October), 164-176.

Chase, Alfred E.: Clipper Ships. Register, Lynn Histori-
cal Society, Number 25, part 11, 90-104.

Early Coastwise and Foreign Shipping of Salem. Essex
Institute Historical Collections, txvu (July), 281-288;
(October), 409-424.

Foster, T. G., Ed.: Port of Providence Clearance Book,
1789. Collections, Rhode Island Historical Society, xxv
(October), 161-163.

THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Gleason, Hall: Old Ships and Ship-building Days of Med-
ford. Medford Historical Register, xxx1v (March), 22-
23; (June), 39-40; (September), 54-55.

Howay, F. W.: A List of Trading Vessels in the Maritime
Fur Trade, 1795-1804. Transactions, Royal Society of
Canada, 3s., xxv, Section I, 117-149.

Hunt, Livingston: An Old-Navy Autobiography. New
England Quarterly, tv (April), 270-287. (Charles Morris
of Connecticut. )

Little, David M.: Documentary History of the Salem
Custom House. Essex Institute Historical Collections,
Lxvi (January), 1-26; (April), 145-160; (July), 265-280.

Marblehead Schooner Taken by the French (1755). /bid.,
(July), 304.

New Bedford Whaling Fleet, The, (1790-1906). Bulletin,
Business Historical Society, v (December ), 9-14.

Tapley, Harriet S.: Richard Skinner, An Early Ejight-
eenth-Century Merchant of Marblehead. Essex Institute
Historical Collections, xvii (October ), 329-352.

The Schooner Sally of Danvers. Historical
Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, x1x, 23-32.

418

EpucaTIONAL History

An Account of the Fire at Harvard College (1764). Mag-
azine of History, x.1v, Extra Number 175, 173-178. (“The
first full and authentic account in printed form.” )

Fish, Carl R.: Edward Channing: America’s Historian.
Current History, xxx11 (March), 862-867.

Hankins, F. H.: Franklin Henry Giddings, 1855-1931:
Some Aspects of His Sociological Theory. American Jour-
nal of Sociology, xxxvui (November), 349-367.

Harvard in Fiction. Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, xv
(September ), 30-54.

Heck, Earl L. W.: When Sir George Downing Attended

Harvard. The Landmark, x11 (November ), 692-694.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 419

Hines, Ezra D.: William Oakes (1799-1848). Historical
Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, x1x, 1-8.
(American botanist. )

Jefferson, Howard B.: Royce on the Problem of Evil.
Journal of Religion, x1 (July), 359-377.

Perry, Ralph B.: Charles William Eliot. New England
Quarterly, tv (January), 5-29.

Scott, Walter: President Charles William Eliot as a Let-
ter Writer. Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, xt (Decem-
ber), 103-114.

Telford, John: President Eliot of Harvard. London Quar-
terly Review, 5th. s., Number 83 (July), 1-11.

Fine Arts

American Historical Prints (1493-1800). Bulletin, New
York Public Library, xxxv (August), 511-522; (Septem- .
ber), 619-657. (Phelps Stokes Collection.)

Bolton, Theodore, and Binsse, Harry L.: Trumbull, His-
toriographer of the Revolution. Antiquarian, xvi (July),
13-18.

Breed, Mary B.: Some Old Breed Homesteads. Register,
Lynn Historical Society, Number 25, part 11, 138-153.

Brockway, Jean L.: Unpublished Miniatures by Benjamin
Trott. Antiques, xx (August), 80-82.

Contract and Expense Account for Building the Samuel
Fowler House, Danversport, 1810. Old-Time New Eng-
land, xx1 (April), 185-187.

Copeland, Jennie F.: The Fisher-Richardson House. /bid.,
(April), 168-178.

Cramer, Effie S.: The Adams Stanton House, Clinton,
Connecticut. /bid., xx11 (October), 88-95.

Folk Sculpture. Antiques, xx (October), 221.

Freund, Frank E. W.: A Self Portrait by Gilbert Stuart.
Art in America, x1x (April), 137-139.

Karr, Louise: Paintings on Velvet. Antiques, xx (Septem-
ber), 162-165.

420 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Robinson, Elinor B.: American Primitive Paintings. /bid.,
xix (January), 33-36.

Robinson, Frederick B.: A Complete Example of “Early
American.” /nternational Studio, xcvi1 (March), 33-36.

Rothenstein, William: Genius in the Nineties. Atlantic
Monthly, cxtvu (January), 21-31. (Whistler, Mrs. Jack
Gardner. )

Sawitzky, William: Re-Discovery of a Lost Gilbert
Stuart. /nternational Studio, xcviu (April), 35.

Sherman, Frederic F.: John Trumbull’s Portrait Minia-
tures on Wood. Art in America, x1x (October), 257-260.

Miniatures by James Peale and Edward
Greene Malbone. /bid., (February), 89-94.

Swan, Mabel M.: The American Kings. Antiques, x1x
(April), 179-181. (Lithographs of American Presidents
printed in Boston, 1825-1828. )

Walter, Mabel H.: The Pike-Streeter Tavern, Waterford,
Vermont. Old-Time New England, xx (July), 15-22.
Watkins, Walter K.: John Coles, Heraldry Painter. /bid.,

xx1 (January), 129-142.

HovusEHOLD AND Minor Arts

Appleton, William S.: A Scenic Wallpaper from East
Dedham, Massachusetts. Old-Time New England, xxu
(October), 51-58.

Ayer, Rose L.: Six-Inch Glass Tea Plates. Antiques, xx
(July), 34-35. (Many from Cambridge and Sandwich fac-
tories. )

Bugbee, Burton A.: On Fireplaces. /bid., (December),
349-353-

Cook, Charles D.: Early Rhode Island Pottery. /bid., x1x
(January ), 37-38.

Dyer, Walter A.: An Outline of American Furniture.
Antiquarian, xvi (June), 15-20; xvi (July), 36-40; (Au-
gust), 33-38; (September), 33-38; (October), 36-40;

(November), 45-48. (Part I— The American Highboy:

William and Mary -Queen Anne ; Part II—The American

BIBLIOGRAPHY 421

Highboy: Chippendale; Part III—The American Low-
boy: William and Mary-Queen Anne; Part IV—The
American Lowboy: Chippendale; Part V—The American
Chest: Seventeenth Century; Part VI—The American
Chest : Eighteenth Century.)

Butterflies. /bid., xv1 (April), 40-44.

Fraser, Esther S.: Some Colonial and Early American
Decorative Floors. Antiques, x1x (April), 296-301.

Gould, G. Glen: What the Collector Should Know about
English and American Pewter. House and Garden, L1x
(March), 74-75.

Harnor, W. M.: A Study of American Piecrust Tables.
International Studio, xc1x (June), 38-40.

Howe, Florence T.: Jacob Sargeant, Goldsmith and Clock-
maker. Antiques, x1x (April), 287-290.

Hunter, Walter C.: The Spoon as a Funerary Souvenir.
lbid., (April), 302-303.

Keyes, Homer E.: American Ship Lowestoft. /bid., (May),
441-440.

Kimball, Fiske: Furniture Carvings by Samuel McIntire.
Ibid., (January), 30-32; (February), 117-119; (March),
207-210. (Part III —Chairs; Part IV — Other “Carver’s
Pieces” ; Part V — Case Pieces.)

Knittle, Rhea M.: American Glass Sugar Bowls. /bid., xx
(December), 344-348.

Lloyd, Ferguson: Furniture Escutcheons in England and
America. Antiquarian, xvii (November), 34-35.

Luther, C. F.: A Newly Discovered Connecticut Chest.
Antiques, x1x (January ), 20-22.

Lyon, Irving P.: Square-Post Slat-Back Chairs. /bid., xx
(October ), 210-2106.

Norman-Wilcox, Gregor: Staffordshire Views of the Bos-
ton State House. /bid., (December), 363-366.

Norton, F. H.: The Crafts Pottery in Nashua, New Hamp-
shire. /bid., x1x (April), 304-305.

Norton, F. H., and Dupleis, V. L., Jr.: The Osborne Pot-
tery at Gonic, New Hampshire. /bid., (February), 123-
124.

422 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Paul Revere Room, The, Bulletin, Museum of Fine Arts
(Boston), xxrx (October ), 84-88.

Ramsay, John: Early American Pottery: A Resumé. An-
tiques, xx (October ), 224-229.

Stein, Aaron M.: The Chapins and Connecticut Valley
Chippendale. Antiquarian, xvi (April), 21-24.

Swan, Mabel M.: A Revised Estimate of McIntire. An-
tiques, xx (December), 338-343.

——__—_—_—— Where Elias Hasket Derby Bought His Fur-
niture. /bid., (November), 280-282.

Turner, F. E.: Simeon North and the American Flintlock.
Antiquarian, xvii (July), 24-25. (A Connecticut armorer
and one of the first government contractors. )

Walcott, William S., Jr.: Isaac Tryon’s Cherry Highboy.
Antiques, xx (August), 99. (Cabinetmaker of Glaston-
bury, Connecticut. )

Watkins, Lura W.: Deming Jarves and the Pressing of
Glass. [bid., (October), 218-220.

Webber, John W.: Roswell Gleason. /bid., (August), 87-
8. (Maker of Britannia ware.)

Wenham, Edward: The Silversmiths of Early Boston.
Antiquarian, xvi (July), 31-34.

LITERATURE AND Foik-Lore

Arvin, Newton: The Failure of E. R. Sill. Bookman,
Lxxu (February), 581-589.

Brown, E. K.: Hawthorne, Melville, and “Ethan Brand.”
American Literature, 11 (March), 22-25.

Canby, Henry S.: Thoreau and the Machine Age. Yale
Review, xx (Spring), 517-531.

Chandler, Elizabeth L.: Hawthorne’s Spectator. New Eng-
land Quarterly, 1v (April), 288-330.

Clark, Henry H.: Emerson and Science. Philological
Quarterly, x (July), 225-260.

Cowie, Alexander: John Trumbull as Revolutionist. Amer-

ican Literature, 111 (November ), 287-295.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 423

Field, Vena B.: Constantia: A Study of the Life and
Works of Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820. University
of Maine Studies, xxx111 (February).

Gohdes, Clarence: Alcott’s “Conversation” on the Tran-
scendental Club and the Dial. American Literature, 111
(March), 14-27.

Gorely, Jean: Emerson’s Theory of Poetry. Poetry Re-
view, (July-August), 263-273.

Grey, Lennox: John Adams and John Trumbull in the
“Boston Cycle.” New England Quarterly, 1v (July), 509-
514.

Hatfield, James T.: An Unknown Prose Tale by Long-
fellow. American Literature, 11 (May), 136-148.

Hawthorne, Julian: The Making of the Scarlet Letter.
Bookman, txxtv (December ), 401-410.

Hawthorne’s “Pot - 8 - o Club” at Bowdoin College. Essex
Institute Historical Collections, txvu (July), 225-232.

Hicks, Granville: A Conversation in Boston. Sewanee Re-
view, xxx1x (April-June), 129-142. (Margaret Fuller.)

Hinckley, Edward B.: Thoreau and Beston: Two Ob-
servers of Cape Cod. New England Quarterly, 1v (April),
216-229.

Hoeltje, Hubert H.: Some Iowa Lectures and Conversa-
tions of Amos Bronson Alcott. Jowa Journal of History
and Politics, xx1x (July), 375-401.

Hotson, Clarence P.: Corrections as to Emerson’s Sources
for “Swedenborg.” The New Philosophy, xxxiv (Janu-
ary), 309.

——_——_———- Emerson and the Swedenborgians. New-
Church Review, xxxvui (January), 46-78.

George Bush and Emerson’s “Swedenborg.”
Emerson, Swedenborg, and B. F. Barret. New
Church Magazine, L (October-December ), 244-252.
Ibid., (January-March), 22-34; (April-June), 98-108.

Long, O. W.: Goethe and Bancroft. Studies in Philology,
xxvur (October), 288-297.

Marchaud, Ernest: Emerson and the Frontier. American
Literature, 11 (May), 149-174.

424. THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

McDowell, Tremaine: Cullen Bryant Prepares for Col-

lege. South Atlantic Quarterly, xxx (April), 125-133.
The Use of Negro Dialect by Harriet Beecher
Stowe. American Speech, vi (June), 322-326.

Means, Philip A.: Prescott’s Account of Early Peru. New
England Quarterly, 1v (October), 645-662.

Pendleton, Emily, and Ellis, Milton: Philenia. The Life
and Works of Sarah Wentworth Morton, 1759-1846. Uni-
versity of Maine Bulletin, xxx1v (December).

Pettigrew, Richard C.: Emerson and Milton. American
Literature, 11 (March), 45-59.

Pritchard, John P.: Lowell’s Debt to Horace’s Ars Poetica.
Ibid., (November ), 259-276.

Stevenson, Lionel: The Dean of American Letters. Book-
man, LXxt1 (April), 164-172. (Julian, son of Nathaniel
Hawthorne. )

Thompson, Ralph: Additions to the Longfellow Bibliog-
raphy. American Literature, u1 (November), 303-308.
Warren, Austin: The Orphic Sage: Bronson Alcott. /bid.,

(March), 3-13.

Whittier Manuscripts. Essex Institute Historical Collec-
tions, Lxvil (April), 113-118.

Wyatt, Euphemia Van R.: Early American Literature for
Children. Catholic World, cxxxi (April), 69-78.

EDITORIAL NOTICES

Mixton Exuts, of the Department of English in the Uni-
versity of Maine, and Ranpaty Stewart, Assistant Professor
of English at Yale, have been elected to the Board of Editors
of the New EnGLanp QuarTERLy.

Books for review, and reviews, should be sent hereafter to
Professor Kenneth B. Murdock, The Master’s Lodgings,
Leverett House, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

All manuscripts should be sent to Professor Samuel Eliot
Morison, 417 Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, Professor Stanley T. Williams, 595 Whitney Avenue,
New Haven, Connecticut, or Stewart Mitchell, Hotel Somerset,
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscriptions should be mailed to Post Office Box 66,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The index and title-page for the fourth volume of the
New ENGLAND QUARTERLY were mailed to all subscribers
in February.

In June the New Encianp QuartTerty will send to all
subscribers, free of charge, a supplement containing a history of
the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917, by
Augustus Peabody Loring.

425

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Ne.son F. Apxins is Assistant Professor of English at
Washington Square College, New York University.

MarcuerirE App.eton, Ph.D., taught History at Welles-
ley College from 1928 to 1931.

J. F. Batpwiy is Professor of History at Vassar College.

Mrs. Marcaret Hiccinson Barney, daughter of Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, is a resident of Boston.

Joun Howarp Birss, a graduate student in English in
Columbia University, is engaged on a bibliography of the
writings of Herman Melville in collaboration with Professor
Robert S. Forsythe of the University of North Dakota.

Juxtan P. Boyp is Editor of the Wyoming Historical and
Geological Society of Wilkes-Barré, Pennsylvania.

D. W. Brocan, a graduate of Oxford, contributes many
reviews of books on American History to the Literary Sup-
plement of The Times. He is a resident of London.

Henry STEELE CoMMAGER is Assistant Professor of His-
tory in New York University.

Merre Eucene Curt is Professor of History at Smith
College.

Dante Evans is Abbot Professor of Christian Theology
in the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton
Centre, Massachusetts.

Autyw B. Forses is Acting Editor of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.

Foy Perxinson Gates is Head of the English Department
at the Southeastern Teachers College, Durant, Oklahoma.

Ratpexo Voiney Har.ow is a member of the staff of in-
struction of the School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in
Syracuse University.

427

428 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Ropert Hityer is Associate Professor of English in Har-
vard University.

Lawrence Martin is Assistant Professor of Contempo-
rary Thought in Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

LawrENcE SHAW Mayo is a former Editor of the New
ENGLAND QUARTERLY.

A. Hyatr Mayor, A.B., Princeton, 1922, spent three years
thereafter as a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford. Re-
cently he has been associated with the Hound and Horn.

Perry Mixer is Instructor and Tutor in the Division
of History, Government, and Economics in Harvard Uni-
versity.

Georce Reap Nutrer, a founder and Editor-in-Chief
of the Harvard Law Review, and formerly President of the
Massachusetts Bar Association, is a resident of Boston.

Kart SCHRIFTGIESSER is a member of the editorial staff
of the Boston Evening Transcript.

Carotine B. SHerman is Associate Agricultural Econ-

omist in the United States Department of Agriculture at
Washington.

T. V. Smrru, Professor of Philosophy in the University
of Chicago, is Editor of the International Journal of Ethics.

Miss Mary Winsitow Smytn, B.L., Smith, 1895, Ph.D.,
Yale, 1910, is Secretary of the Folk-Song Society of the
Northeast, and co-editor, with Mrs. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm,
of The Minstrelsy of Maine (1927). In 1929 she published,
in collaboration with Mr. Phillips Barry and Mrs. Eckstorm,
British Ballads from Maine.

RANDALL Stewart is Assistant Professor of English in
Yale.

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